War of the Ancients
by Ignatuis Argetlam
Summary: Who was this new kid? Before he had nothing. but at Camp Half-Blood he has it all. Mr D. liked him, he had plenty of friends, he was popular, he is even liked by a girl. But a long forgotten evil threatens to take all that away!
1. Not-so-safe Weekend

**Hey Readers! Ig here. Hope you like this new story. This is mostly an experiment for me to step outside my writing comfort zone but lets see if it gets anywhere! And remember, review! I really don't care whether you worship me or hate me or somewhere in the middle.**

**This story is dedicated to a good friend. R.I.P. bud, I hope they serve chocolate milk In heaven.**

**This takes palce after TLO**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of PJO. all rights go to Rick Riordan. I only own my OC's**

**Joey's POV**

RRRing! RRRing! I slammed my hand down on my clock and tried to convince myself why I had an old style alarm clock. I sat up and threw the blankets off of me. After a big stretch, I scratched my hair which was amazingly sticking out in every direction. I threw on a Volcom T-shirt and some Levi's. I slumped down the stairs and popped some toast in the toaster. "Morning Joey."

"Morning Mom." I replied putting cutlery on the table.

My toast popped so I went to butter them.

"Have any plans for today?" My Mom loves small talk.

"Yeah, I'm heading over to Jason's till Sunday."

"Okay, I'm going to work so see you Sunday." My Mom came over and hugged me. I ate alone. After my Dad left, it was just me and my Mom, it got really lonely sometimes. Jason was really one of my only friends at school. I finished breakfast and put everything away, then sat on the couch. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Since I had Dyslexia and ADHD, I couldn't read text on commercials if my life depended on it. This made them pretty boring so I just laid back. This only made it worse since I couldn't sit still either. So I satisfied myself by tapping my fingers and humming Rascall Flatts until Family guy was back on.

_Thump _

_Thump_

_Thump_

All three darts hit the middle circle perfectly. I leaned back on the couch with a satisfied look on my face. "Beat that" I challenged.

"Alright" Jason positioned himself and fired.

After 2 new darts landed in the wall I interfered; "Dude, you guys just built this new room don't wreck the walls already." Jason agreed with a sigh and let himself fall on the bed.

The doorbell rang and Jason remembered it was his job to answer it. He ran up the stairs and I could hear the door open. They exchanged a quick conversation and eventually Jason called down, "Joey these guys want to talk to you!"

I didn't tell anybody I was coming over, who else knew about it except for Mom? Yes it was definitely Mom. Wait. He said these guys. Who else could it be? I threw that thought into the back of my mind and called upstairs, "Okay!" and went up. I walked up to the doorway and saw two kids from school and their dog. "What's do you want Zach?'

"Where were you Friday?"He said, inviting himself in, his minion Jayden who walked in after him. Gosh I could just punch these guys. Zachary spent all his time insulting people because everyone respected him authority. But how did he get his authority? By insulting people. It was a pointless cycle and I don't see why people don't realize it. But not me. Nosiree I do everything I can to humiliate, embarrass or annoy them. Even though I have only been here two years, I have done alot of damage and I'm proud of it.

I suddenly understood they had a bigger reason to be here and decided to get the conversation going.

"What do you want? We both know we hate each other." I stated, getting to the point. Jason took a shaky step back. I wish he would stand up for me more. He's a real scaredy-cat sometimes and I often find myself 2 against one, with me having the handicap.

Zach smiled and I looked him in the eyes, or eye. I blinked, Zachary had one eye in the middle of his forehead, I blinked again and it was gone, I shook my head to clear it. My contact must be in wrong.

Jayden smiled a smile that shows you know something another person doesn't

"Demigods," Jayden stated simply shaking his head and chuckling.

"Congratulations Jayden, you remember Mr. Carlson's history lesson." I stated to annoy him. What the hell did non-existent superhero mortals have to do with this? Gosh these guys are strange sometimes.

Jayden stared daggers into me with a frown, then with a sly smile, his and Zach's skin seemed to bubble, it stretched and grew. This happened until they were 8 foot tall, one eyed, muscled beasts.

"What the-"I continued to swear most curses known to the English language and a couple even I didn't know.

"C-C-Cyclops!"Jason turned and made for the garage. Thanks for the backup buddy. Typical Jason. Jayden's bulldog morphed into a gigantic dog –from-hell and chased after him.

Oh great, it wasn't enough that the porch was overflowing with a couple muscular giant with a huge lack of depth perception. They had a morphing dog that could triple in size and chase off 8th graders.

Zach looked up from his hunched over position. He had one eye again. Even hunched over his back nearly brushed the roof. He lifted his head (which cracked the ceiling) and roared, oh boy.

**Sorry it's so short but please REVIEW and tell me how it is! Be sure to read to the end! Trust me it gets way better with lots of action!**


	2. Depth Perception and Goat Butts

**Joey's POV**

From this point on I relied entirely on instinct. It was like I was watching myself through a haze. I dodged under Jayden's grabbing arms. He missed and rammed into the granite countertop which cracked. (Sorry Jason!) I stared at Zachary's long, hard black claws as Jayden was pulling shards of granite out of his chest. Zach smiled and slashed at me but I rolled out of the way. My eyes widened when I saw what happened to Jason's refrigerator. It had four giant gashes down the door. _Zachary was going to kill me!_ This was serious. I don't know what the heck happened, but that was sure proof, realization dawned upon me and i realized it was fight or flight. My mind told me flight, but for some reason every fiber of my being told me fight. Guess which one I went with?

I ran over to the counter and grabbed a big knife. I let it fly at the giant with all the force I can muster. It hit him in the shoulder and he pulled it out with a wince, still advancing on me. I grabbed two long knives from the drawer and ran into the living room, crouching in the middle of the room on the rug. This only seemed to amuse him.

"C'mon demigod, come out come out where ever you are!" Why do they keep saying Demigod!

Sure, two Gr. 8's just magically morphed into giant, knife proof, hide and seek loving Cyclopes, why not throw Demigods in there somewhere?

I laughed in my mind. Even thought this is surely a life-or-death situation,(surely only one of us was going to walk out of here alive, and my bets weren't with the human. my mind was thinking elsewhere. When I thought of the final battle between me and Zachary, i always thought a fistfight at a party, or even a street fight if it was serious. But here we were staring at each other. Strange.

Zachary stiffened and his head rolled off. I stared with pure and utter disbelief. Never in my life would I think I would see a case of spontaneous decapitation. He dissolved into golden dust. Leaving me spitting gold dust out of my mouth. There was a boy older than me with black hair and sea- green eyes sitting there with his bronze sword still poised.

"Did you just-"

"No time to explain, C'mon!" he yelled, grabbing my arm.

We ran out on the street and saw a girl fighting Jayden. She slipped on a Yankee's cap and turned invisible. Soon another Cyclops fell victim to spontaneous decapitation. It fell on a recycling bin before it disintegrated into gold dust just like Zach. She took off her hat and ran to the boy.

"Percy!" she yelled and kissed him.

"Blech" I grimaced. He pulled away,

"Are you hurt?"She smiled at him sheepishly.

"Percy I'm fine!"

I heard barking. Jason! He was still probably running away from the hound from hell.

I ran down the street and saw a kid in a black army jacket fighting the hound. The hound pounced at him and he knocked him down. The kid was having a backwards tug-of-war, pushing against the dog's jaws with the flat of his sword.

I grabbed the larger of the knives I was still holding, I threw it at the hound. It was far away and moving around, but its aim was true and it struck the monster in the eye. It dissolved into dust, just like the other monsters.

The remains of Jayden and his dog flew into my face.

Jason walked up seemingly out of nowhere to the dumped over recycling bin. He grabbed a tin can and started chewing it.

He looked at me, catching himself, and he asked,

"You mind if I have these?"

"Go hard" I said awkwardly. He bent over to grab another, and he had a goat butt.

"Um, dude, YOU HAVE A GOAT BUTT!?"

"Reeeaaalllly?" he said slowly, laced with sarcasm.

"He's a satyr, half-goat half-human." The black haired boy explained.

"You guys have alot of explaining to do!" I exclaimed.

"I'll explain on the way" the kid with the black jacket said.

"On the way to where? I'm not going anywhere with you guys! I just met you!"

"If you don't come with us, we won't be able to protect you from THOSE" the girl explained.

"I can't just leave, what about my mom?"

"She knows"

"About what!?"

"Look, I'll explain later but more of those are coming, you need to get in"

"This is getting to be a repeating cycle, ever heard of don't talk to strangers?

I hesitated, and then remembered. These people just saved my life. Why would someone else go all the way here to do that? They seemed just like me, so i went with it. (I also wanted to look at their swords closer, they were so cool!)

I got in the car in the backseat and the kid whose jacket smelled like death sat in the next seat.

"So, what happened back there?" I demanded

"Well, you were playing hide and seek with Cyclopes, then we showed up and saved your butt." The kid sitting beside me explained, and then laughed.

The girl punched him in the arm.

"Ouch!'

"Oh, shut up Nico!" Percy, I remembered, said.

"People, explain this!" I demanded.

"Okay, okay, you know the Greek gods? All those myths? Well they are real."

He gave me a moment to take that in.

"Prove it."

"Okay, you know your Grandma?"

"Yeah"

"She died April 19, 2003, 12:03"

"What...You... I keep that card on my headboard, that doesn't prove anything!"

Percy moved his hand funky and he unscrewed the lid of a water bottle in the front seat without touching it. Again, without touching it, he sent a large floating ball of water into my face with a flick of a finger.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." He said calmly. Annabeth handed me a towel.

"Thank you" I said rudely, directing it at Percy.

"So you are all Demi-gods?"

"Everybody present, save the Satyr" Nico explained.

"Wha-, me? I'm no all powerful demigods." I exclaimed.

Annabeth turned around sighing, like she had explained this many times.

"Let me guess, you been diagnosed with ADHD, or even dyslexia, you can't keep still, at school, words seem to float off the pages, and finally in that battle, I bet all your senses were perfect, every detail exact."

I sat there staring at the seat. For what seemed like forever all you could hear was the crunching of Jason on his stashed tin cans.

"So, who are your parents?"

"Athena"

"Hades" Nico said it like it was no problem.

"That's why you knew about Nana, your son of the god of death"

"You call her Nana?" Jason snorted. I punched him hard in the arm.

For awhile, it was silence. I reached into my jacket and felt the knife I had left. I brought it out. It was my Grandpa's hunting knife. It was a gift my mom had kept and given to me a week before, on my 13th birthday. It somehow made it into the drawer.

I pulled it out of its sheath and decided I wouldn't use it, only keep it to remember grandpa, and mom.

I looked out the window.

"How long have we been driving?" I asked

"About a half an hour." Annabeth answered.

"Wha- how did you guys get there so fast?"

"I shadow-traveled us there, I passed out from the exertion. The Satyr woke me up."

Jason bleated, (gosh this is weird) hating being called "The Satyr"

" I have a name-"

"That's pretty cool I guess" I cut Jason off, ending the argument.

Nico puffed out his chest a little and laid back.

I laid back and realized how tired I actually was.

"I'm going to go take a nap."

"Go ahead, we have a seven hour drive ahead of us" Nico explained, getting comfy in his seat.

Before I could calculate the fact that I was going to leave myself helpless in a van with three heavily armed people with only a man-goat that was on my side, I lolled my head to the side and fell asleep instantly.

**Please tell me how it is! Let me know people are reading this by reviewing!**


	3. Beating Gods at Pinochle

**Joey POV**

Jason shook me awake.

"We are here." He stated

I opened my eyes. _Here already? I can't believe I slept 7 hours._

I cracked my neck and opened up the door. I looked at the sign.

_Camp Half Blood_

I was giddy with excitement when we were walking up the hill.

"No mortal can enter the borders." Percy explained. "When they see the valley, they won't see Camp Half Blood at all."

"Why's that?"

"It's called The Mist, it stop's mortals from seeing everything from monsters to gods and magical weapons. I stopped myself from asking any more questions when i saw the dragon curled around a tree.

Nico, Jason, Annabeth and I walked through the arch and into the camp. After walking for not very long, we reached a big house, (later I learned it was actually called "The Big House). A guy walked up. Well, he wasn't really a guy. Waist up, he was a normally, 50 or so year old man. Waist down, he had the body of a white horse.

I seemed really surprised, which only seemed to amuse the centaur.

_Centaur._

That was their name.

He walked up to me.

"So this is the new Demi-god!" He said with a smile. "Great work Jason."

He shook my hand and nearly crushed it.

"Yeah Chiron, should we just go straight to Dinner?"

I couldn't help interrupting.

"Wait, your Chiron! You should have been dead like a million years ago!"

He let loose a deep throated laugh and commented:

"Not quite." What was that supposed to mean horse-man?

"And dinner will begin quite shortly."

We walked up to the Big House, where a man and Chiron were playing cards.

"Um Joey, this is Dionysus, god of wine. He directs the camp." Annabeth explain. I was caught completely off guard I had no idea what to do in front of a god. So I performed a quick bow.

Mr D. smiled.

"I think I like this kid" he stated which dropped everyone's jaw.

"Um, are you playing pinochle?"

"Young man you are the first one in years to recognize it. Would you like to play in the last round?"

"Of course!" I did my best to sound excited. I was afraid I would get smote or something if I refused. I sat down and Mr. D. dealt out a hand. Here i was playing pinochle with a god and a horsie.

"Any melds?" Mr. D. asked.

"Um, err, no"

"Look, I don't smite kids who beat me at this, anymore."

"Phew, ok here it goes." I played a few melds, won some tricks and ended up beating Mr. D and Chiron so bad Mr. D threw his cards against the table and commented,

"How did I lose to a camper?" I excused myself politely and walked/ran/sprinted away from the big house.

On the way to Dinner I met Nico and he explained all about who Chiron and Mr. D is, how I would be sitting with the Hermes cabin; pretty much Camp 101.

We walked up to the Dining Pavilion. I stopped counting tables at 9. Nico pointed over to the Hermes Cabin. I waved him goodbye and sat down next to a tall and skinny guy with a mop of curly brown hair and brown eyes.

"Sorry to barge in, I'm new, just got here."

"No problem, Travis Stoll" He offered his hand.

I took it.

"Joey Coleman"

"Welcome to the Hermes Cabin."

I was about to say something but the wood nymphs came around with barbecue that made my heart melt. I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday, or was that today? I pushed that out of my mind and thought of the Barbecue.

Connor looked over and explained how to magically fill the goblets with whatever you want. We laughed as Travis tried to glitch it out by randomly calling;

"Coke! Pepsi! 7-up! Buckley's! Lotion! Pepto-Bismol!"

The last few left me and Connor laughing and holding our stomachs, mostly because they actually worked.

I looked around. All these people were just like me. For the first time in my life I felt truly welcome. I shook my head out of my daze and realized everyone was already up. Connor motioned with his head to follow him.

I was wondering what the heck the entire camp was standing up but I followed them up to the bronze brazier in the middle.

Connor explained how the best looking piece's of food was sacrificed to the gods, apparently they liked the smell.

I imagined a bunch of gods around a hole in a cloud, waving the smell of some random kid's meal into their nostrils.

Creepy.

_Please help me out, whoever you are, give me a sign, anything._


	4. Sing-Alongs and Disappointment

I slip two ripe strawberries and a nice piece of barbecue ribs into the fire and watched them burn, and then sat back down.

I sat down and finished supper in silence, too deep in thought to join in on some weird conversation Connor and someone else from the cabin that only they understood. I followed Connor and Travis back to the cabin and they showed me my own bed and trunk.

"Hopefully you'll be claimed tonight at the campfire and won't have to sleep here."

Travis interjected.

"But still, you'll be always welcome at Hermes Cabin. It's kind of appropriate since Hermes is the god of travelers and a bunch of other things."

"Thanks guys." I said looking down.

I thought it would be easy to stuff the trunk with all I had, which would be easy because it was nothing. But I was surprised when I saw clothes in there, even a camp T-shirt, which I put on.

Connor lent me a sweater for the campfire and we walked out as a cabin. We sat down underneath a banner with the medical thingy on it.

It started to get dark. The fire was amazing. It glowed different colors at seemingly random times. The Apollo kids came out with random instruments.

Everybody started groaning, they knew what was coming. They started a sing-a-long but I didn't mind. I had always been not bad at singing. After about ten minutes of groaning, clapping, sighing, strumming and singing, Chiron walked into the light of the campfire. Instant silence, this guy was good.

"Welcome all to a new summer at Camp Half-Blood! We have some new campers this year so I will start out with that. As I say your name, please raise your hand or... something."

He continued to call out names. He called out one name in my memory.

"Kade Jamison! Welcome to Camp Half blood."

Kade stood up and I realized he was in Hermes Cabin. As he stood up I gasped as a bobbing circle appeared over his head. It was a caduceus (That's the word!), identical to the banner flowing overhead. The light nearly illuminated the entire Hermes Cabin. The only person who seemed more surprised at this phenomenon than me was Kade. He was rapidly looking from left to right and all around, just wondering what the heck was happening here and why all eyes were still on him

"Aahh our first claiming" Chiron said casually, as if levitating medical symbols were common around here.

"Welcome Kade Jamison, son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, god of Travelers, merchants, thieves, roads, speed, shepherds, messengers, commerce, transition,(big breath) boundaries, travel –"

"Ok that's plenty Chiron!" the shout came from a bulky guy slightly older than me, underneath a banner with a blazing hammer. This erupted laughter from all angles of the campfire. I think I even saw Mr D. crack a grin, but he would never admit it.

Not having to move, Kade simply sat down beside Connor, who awarded him with a playful slap on the back.

Chiron went through the other half of the names. I counted two Aphrodite claimings, one Athena, two Hephaestus, two more Hermes, but then I lost track.

After what seemed like forever, a thought occurred.

_What about me? Gods please don't tell me I'm last, please don't be last._

Chiron raised the parchment he was reading the names from and stated;

"Aahh, last but not least-"Screw you Chiron.

"Joey Coleman"

I raised my hand, half expecting a floating Chinchilla, beach ball or even a cat or something to be floating above my head. What? This camp is really screwed up!

But there was no floating rodent, inflatable toy, or feline above my head. No big show. No moment. I balled my fist. I was ready to lash out at something when Chiron made another announcement.

"Also, this Friday there will be Capture the Flag! And remember Ares cabin, no mauling!"

This erupted a cheer from all corners of the campfire but a few scattered groans from under the boars head banner.

"Now, all of you to bed, we have a big day of camp tomorrow."

Chiron trotted away towards the big house. I followed Travis to Cabin 11.

Trying to take my mind off things, I chuckled to myself. There were all sorts of mix-matched cabins; I won't even try to describe them. But Hermes cabin was actually the only normal one. It looked like a worn-away summer cabin. I entered through the door and onto my bunk bed. I hadn't realized how tired I was. I forgot to get changed when I hit the bunk like a rock. I chuckled to myself;

_Just like last summer at Camp Chinikawaea, sleeping in a normal bunk with a normal trunk at my feet with a normal pillow under my head. Maybe this might be not that weird of a summer after all._

I could never, EVER imagine how wrong I was.


	5. Pranks and Curses

I woke before the sound of the horn. Tiptoeing to my trunk, I threw on my jeans and camp tee shirt. The tee shirt was vibrant orange with the words: **'Camp Half Blood' **with a centaur holding a drawn bow. I grabbed my watch from the nightstand. It was Thursday.

Funny. Only a day and a half ago my biggest worry was if I could find Halo 3 and bring it to Jason's.

I walked outside, slowly closing the door as I left.

"Look who's awake" Kade stated, which nearly sent me back through the door it surprised me so much.

"Hey Kade", never thought I'd see you again."

"You too know each other?" Connor asked, I hadn't even realized he was there.

"Yeah, we went to the same school."

"Cool, not that we are well met, I'll fill you in on this prank we are going to pull-"

He went on and explained the plan, outcome, and personal jobs. After we were all filled in, we went to work.

I crept into Aphrodite Cabin. I slowly put my hand against the door and closed it shut. I looked around and to no surprise it was empty. Everyone was at the showers. Even thought, i could here a few sleeping beauties who were snoring away, so I stayed quiet.

Gosh, I didn't know who my Dad was, but I was pretty sure there was a chance it might be Hermes. I slid through bunks and around trunks with the skill of an expert thief, until I tripped over a side table.

Real smooth. The table hit the ground and since it had a round top, it decided to help me out by rolling around in a slow circle. I quickly did a cool combat roll then barrel rolled under a bunk, holding my breath for my life.

A few girls shot up and went to see the table. The squinted and one yelled;

"Jake I've told you before, STOP FLAILING YOUR ARMS IN YOUR SLEEP!" an unexcited, "huh?" came from the bathroom as the girls stomped back to bed.

I quickly got up and ducked behind the door as Jake left to go shower. I slipped in and dumped all the makeup, shampoo and hairspray off of all the counters into this special jacket with a giant pocket Travis had given me. I quickly got out, slipped open the back door and side-pole vaulted over it. I sprinted as fast as i could trying not to laugh all the way to Cabin 11.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"Uh-oh" Kade called out. Me, Travis, Connor, Kade, and a couple of other campers were chilling around the now quenched fire pit in lawn chairs. Drew Tanaka came out of Aphrodite cabin with her face and neck deep blue and her hair carrot orange and frizzy; it looked as if it had exploded.

"Travis! Connor! I'm going to tear you apart!" She squealed it in the highest note I had ever heard.

"I didn't take your make-up" Travis and Connor simultaneously raised their hands in innocence. "He did" Travis swung his arms Elvis style in humour and they landed on me.

Holy crap.

I was screwed.

"He helped too!" I pleaded but Drew and some other Aphrodite campers had followed her. She was stalking towards me in her pajamas with comb still in hand.

"I officially hate you" I emphasized to Travis who only replied in a fit of laughter.. I started sprinting southeast to the river.

**(Start playing epic chase music in your head.)**

My feet were freezing. I had forgotten to put on shoes after my Aphrodite cabin raid. The dew was cold on the grass and my toes were about to freeze off. The Aphrodite Cabin was about three times as athletic as they looked when someone had messed with their make-up. I saw the bridge in the distance, but I don't think I would make it. I hadn't had breakfast and my legs were tired. The Barbie dolls form Hades were gaining on me. To be honest they look like angry ginger avatars.

"Oh boy" I breathed I had started to slow down. The bridge was up ahead. I did a overly large stride and the wood felt blessed on my arctic cold feet. But sadly it was over and i was already at Arts and Crafts, where Nico was hanging around.

"Hey, you're late. You still want to hit the beach?" I was so tired I could hardly answer

"No time... Aphrodite Campers... Angry red avatars... Hate me... shadow travel ple- ooff!"

Drew Tanaka did an amazing in-air-football-tackle and took me down. Nico started laughing so hard he was silent and stood there clapping like a retarded seal. A large male Aphrodite camper who was handsome and surprisingly strong picked me up and put me in an arms-behind-the-back-master-hold. I was surrounded by some very angry and blue campers. I swear if Drew was any angrier, steam would come out in puffs like a bull.

"I must compliment Aphrodite cabins athletic ability, I really underes-"

"How could you! My hair! My beautiful hair!" man this chick would not let me finish a sentence. Now she was stroking her hair like it was her child.

"you are so dead, with your Hermes cabin buddies along with y-"

"No, it was all me, it was my idea and I did it." Man it felt good cutting her off. If I got myself caught may as well take the blame. It would probably get me some respect from Hermes Cabin too.

While I was in dreamland, Drew had prayed to Aphrodite and now a beam of purple hit me from the heavens. It felt strangely warm and suddenly I felt a ripple in the fabric of my clothes. But when glanced down they looked the exact same.

"What was that?" I asked

"Oh you'll see," Drew answered satisfied." When you least expected it." Ok whatever that means.

They all left me there. They had chased me for a good half hour and now they will just leave me, something was up.

I was right


	6. Fun in the Sun

I walked over to the Dining Pavilion. I had finally put on my shoes so the cement floor would torture me.

I sat scarfing down waffles like my life depended on it. I had never realized how hungry I was from my morning chase. I looked up every once in a while from my waffles, Usually at Cabin 10. They stared at me, the blue skin and red hair still effective. Everyone else stared at me like my hair was about to explode, to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if it did. I knew these gods were all powerful and, depending on how much they monitored their children- not much in my case obviously- pissing off a goddess and her children might not have been my best choice of my new half-blood life.

Anyway, after breakfast we had a free day and I was heading down to the beach with Kade to meet Annabeth, Nico and Percy. I met him at the cabin and we changed into our swimming trunks, which our trunks provided. (Not the shorts the chests.)

With towels around our shoulders, we walked down to the beach.

During the aimless walk there, me and Kade talked about (what do you think they talked about?) girls.

"You got your eyes on any of them Aphrodite girls?" I asked

"Nah, too much drama, and to be honest I think that curse is going to hit you hard, and I'm afraid that'll happen to me if I break up with one of em."

"Anyways" Kade continued "you going to ask someone out?"

"C'mon man" I pleaded "this is like, what, the six chapter! Be patient!"

"What?"

"To be honest Kade, I don't know, I really don't know."

We hit the beach and met Nico, Percy and Annabeth, who I introduced to Kade.

I layed down on a comfy lawn chair. Time for some relaxation. I stripped off my shirt and I spotted an Apollo girl with raised eyebrows. I smiled. She blushed. I layed down with satisfaction. I looked at Kade and, of course, he was smiling at me. I shook my head. We knew each other almost too well.

"Percy." I shook his shoulder.

"What?" I pulled out a Frisbee with a smile.

"It's a nice day, let's do something"

"I'm guessing your idea has to do with that plastic disk?" I smiled again

"I'm thinking Tips!"

"What are you guys talking about? Annabeth asked, sitting up with her blue bikini and dark brown sunglasses.

"Tips!" I said, shaking the Frisbee.

"Ok how do we play?" Annabeth inquired.

"Ok, we need two teams, boy and girl. I'm going to have to find a girl. One team throws it and the tipper has to tip it off a body part, then the catcher has to catch it before it hits the ground."

"Sounds good"

"Yeah let's do it!" Percy stood up with his blue and white trunks.

"Joey" Annabeth indicated with a 'come here' finger motion. I walked up to her and she cupped her hand around my ear and whispered:

"You should ask her, she's been looking at you this entire time." She pointed with a slim finger towards a Blonde girl by the trees. I pulled away, my cheekbones reaching a new shade of red. I forgot to tell you guys. I'm a big blusher.

After a couple; you think so?'s Annabeth nodded her head and I walked over.

God, this girl was as hot as the sand under my feet. She had perfect, flawless tan skin that was free from all imperfections. She had high cheekbones and a million dollar smile filled with pearly white teeth. Her beautiful blonde hair went slightly past her bikini top in swirls. She was about 3 inches shorter than me. She was wearing a cute green bikini and brown sunglasses like Annabeth. She was currently laughing with her friends about some joke. I couldn't guess what cabin she was in. I was close now. She looked away from her friends and smiled when she saw me.

"Hiya" she greeted cheerfully.

"Hi, um, I'm playing Tips with my buddies and um" I rubbed the back of my neck, reflecting how nervous i was," I need a partner. Do you want to play?"

"I'd love to!" she said cheerfully. She got up and walked all cute with her hands in the air due to the hot sand.

I walked over and found Percabeth making out. Gods was I gone that long? I cleared my throat my they pulled away. she giggled and looked at her toes. While Annabeth and my new "friend" were talking Percy smiled and winked at me with a thumbs up. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry I never got your name." I added.

"Miranda, Miranda Gardner." She offered her hand. I took it.

"Joey Coleman" I added.

"I saw you at the Campfire, welcome to camp Joey."

"Thanks"

We got in position. Annabeth and Miranda were going to be tippers and Percy and I were going to be catchers for now. I threw an expert throw that curled in front of Annabeth. Annabeth reached far to the left and it rolled off her fingers. Percy being the gentleman he is tackled her to catch it but it bounced off his fingers.

"Get up you two!" Miranda giggled. Percy and Annabeth were in a football tackle with the Frisbee out of reach.

"All right how about this!" Percy threw the Frisbee as fast as he could and Miranda expertly bounced it off her elbow into my waiting hands.

"No fair! You guys are too good at this." Percy complained which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Annabeth. He hunched over in mock pain.

"C'mon Seaweed Brain we are going to win this."

"Alright but you throw this time" Annabeth threw and Miranda stuck out her hip. The Frisbee ricocheted off and I did a big dive a barely caught it. I was dumping sand out of my mouth as everyone was laughing about Miranda's booty wagging.

I threw a curve-Frisbee to Annabeth and she bounced it off her head into Percy hands.

"Finally!" Annabeth emphasized.

Annabeth threw and Miranda kicked it up then bounced it off her head.

Man this girl was good.

We played some more rounds. Miranda was awesome at this and was great at friendly competition. She tipped all of them even some pretty challenging ones. I caught them all. Percabeth was having some troubles though; they were always tackling each other.

The score was 50-36.

"Alright Percy I'm going to tip a double knee chest then head, then you NEED to catch it got it!?"

"Um yeah" If Percy screwed this up, then I would feel really bad for him. He would be in the doghouse for ages.

Miranda threw a throw, the ones that go up diagonal them come down the way they came. Annabeth turned around and bounced it off both knees like a soccer player. Annabeth then did a hip thrust which sent Percy giggling. The Frisbee was losing momentum but she dived and knocked it off her head.

"Percy!" she screamed. Percy shook himself out of his laughter and dived. But he missed and hit... Annabeth. I swear you could land on a poisonous scorpion and he would be happier. Percy impacted her skull with his directly. Percy was rubbing his head and Annabeth was yelling at him. Miranda ran up to me and hugged me.

"Yay we won! She exclaimed. She put one foot up in the air, then realizing she pulled away shyly. She was blushing nearly as much as I was.

Holy crap.

What just happened?

After we said goodbye we walked back, me smiling and Annabeth yelling at Percy at how they could have won.

We got back and Kade and Nico were chatting up two Aphrodite girls who had somehow wore off the curse. They stared at me with satisfaction

Man I was sweating.

Like seriously, it was a Sauna here. My entire body was suddenly slick with sweat. I reached for my collar.

Why did I have a collar? I took of my short before we played Tips.

I looked down and swore.

I was wearing a hot pink tuxedo complete with a fedora.

"How long have I been wearing this?!" I asked furiously. Everyone was rolling on the sand they were laughing so hard.

"The very last throw, (giggle) in tips" Annabeth gasped for air. "Was when the Aphrodite curse kicked in."

Cabin 10! That's who did this!

"Did Miranda see me in this?"

"Yes I did, and to be honest you looked quite handsome" she said eyebrows raised. I stuttered for about five second, caught completely off guard and blushed a record shade of red, but she just giggled and walked away with a wave. What the F*** what that supposed to mean? Did she like me? Was it a joke? Sarcasm? Was she mocking me? Women!

I walked past Kade and he elbowed me in the ribs. I looked back.

"Smooth" he said with a wink.

"Shut up!" I returned playfully. Kade could make anyone smile with his light-brown hair that went up in the front and liquid blue eyes. I really don't see how we were friends in our old school.

I guess we both had brown hair, but his was lighter.

I was 5 9', he was 5'7 ½

He had short hair. Mine was a bit longer.

We both had blue eyes but mine were dull, nearly grey and his were like ice. We both had white smiles and strong muscles that helped alot in life, living on a farm that is. We lived beside each other about an hour out of Pittsburgh. Farm life had hardened our minds and abs though, and Kade love to show them off.

He was confident, I was getting there.

He flirted; I made the mistake of the friend zone every time.

You see, we are so alike but also so different, but we get each other.


	7. Weapons, Pinochle and Bull's Eye's

For awhile we just sat there lounging in the sun. Well, at least I didn't.

The Sun. Man it was heavenly. Too bad I didn't get it. Thanks to my stylish pink tuxedo I couldn't get out in the sun without sweating like a pig. So I sat just in the shade to a lone pine, ten feet away from my friends. I struck up a conversation with Percy about magical items.

"So Riptide, will always be in your pocket even if you throw it away?"

"Yup, Chiron gave it to me."

"Man I want a magical sword or something; does Chiron give them all away?"

"Well, sometimes. I got this from Chiron. If it's in the armoury he'd be more than happy to give it to you, every half blood need a weapon. Some get there's from their parents, like Thalia's shield or Annabeth hat."

"Oh, I'm going to have to get you to bring me to the armoury sometime before Capture the Flag."

"I'm sure Annabeth would love to give you a full tour of the camp, which you actually haven't got yet."

"Ok, there's the pegasi stable, where you will get lessons on how to ride them, there's the Arena where you will get sword fighting lessons. There's the Archery court, where you will see if you are any good at archery. The forge is right there, mostly used by the Hephaestus cabin. And now when we cross the river-"

She continued to talk about the amphitheatre and the climbing wall, (which looked awesome) and finally the big house. This is where Mr D and Chiron preside. Chiron waved and invited me to another game of Pinochle. I gave them a thumbs up. I turned and Annabeth elbowed me in the stomach,

"Suck up" she said playfully.

"See you at dinner!"

"You too!" I called back.

I walked up.

"I can't have my opponent wearing something like that! Mr. D proclaimed. With a snap of his fingers I was wearing a regular camp tee-shirt and jeans.

"Thanks so much!" I sat down and played.

After I won three rounds straight Mr. D threw his cards against the table.

"For one so young, I am greatly impressed at your skill, who taught you?" Chiron asked.

"My great Grandfather, then my Grandfather taught me."

" You sure taught this old horse a thing or two, what about you Mr. D, signing up for personal lessons?"  
Chiron asked playfully as he got up. Mr D. just stared at him and left.

"Is he going to smite me?" I asked completely serious. Chiron just laughed.

"Not quite but you did injure his pride, he blamed your first win as beginners luck."

I said goodbye and met Kade and Percy at the Armoury. Nico held open the door and we walked in, it was amazing. It had a large collection of swords, spears, clubs and even shotguns. Kade picked up a Golden Drachma.

"What does this do?" Kade flipped it in the air and ducked his head to the side as a full sized celestial bronze spear came out; there was no sign of the coin.

"Wow" he said simply, turning it around. He did a couple air stabs and stated,

"I'm taking it" He picked up a rubber bracelet, the kind given away free as promoters. It read: **Camp Half Blood. **I'm guessing it was in Greek because there was a few mix-matched Greek letters. He put it on and twisted it. The bracelet turned into a leather bracer and a bronze shield expanded outward until it had a diameter of about two and a half feet.

"I'll take this too" he decided happily. He was a kid in a candy store. When he was outside he pulled out his spear and his shield and started experimenting with them.

"Hmm" I ran my eye across the sword rack.

_I definitely want a sword. I don't really care about carrying around a sheath, so it doesn't have to be hidden. It will probably end up being celestial bronze. Hmm, I want something different, something that stands out, something that stands out more than a normal sword? There._

I picked it off the rack and felt the weight in my hands. _Perfect_.

It was a three-foot double edged sword made of celestial bronze. It was one-handed with a ridged grip. It fit my hand perfectly. After moving it around in my hand I realized it was very light and quick, like a snake.

_Wait till those monsters feel my bite! _I joked to myself.

"I like it" I stated to Nico.

"It's yours, you want a shield?" Something told me to say no.

"Um no I'm good with this, where's the scabbard?" Nico handed it to me. It was black with fine gold bronze swirls going down it. I clipped it to my belt.

"Thanks a bunch Nico, but I got to head to my Cabin; we are meeting for combat training."

"Ok see you later"

I walked past the archery range and stopped for awhile. I stood with new confidence with my sword. One Hephaestus camper was having trouble hitting the target.

"You are pulling the bow back too hard" i commented.

"Oh yeah? What do you know?" he challenged. I furrowed my eyebrows. I was just trying to help. Time to make an example. I nudged him out of his little Archery stall and grabbed a bow. I pulled it back and hit the target close to the bulls eye.

"Real impressive!" He said laced with sarcasm from behind me. "Never seen that before!"

I furrowed my brow again. Gods this guy. I grabbed two arrows and knocked them on my bow. I released them at perfect angle and they hit two target bulls-eye.

Silence. The camper behind me stuttered,

"Is that the best you got?" he said with impressive confidence.

I knocked an arrow and looked another camper and had missed the target and hit a pine branch behind it. An overly large pinecone was waving, close to falling.

"What are you waiting for!?" wait for it.

"Hurry up pretty boy!"

Hard to concentrate with that idiot behind me. I held my breath in anticipation

The pinecone fell. I struck it before it hit the ground and stuck it against the tree with the arrow.

I turned around and put out my arms to the camper. His jaw was dropped. I turned around and return the bow and the arrows neatly. I looked and he was still staring at me. The stall was lighter than before. He simply pointed up and said,

"Well that explains it."

I followed his finger and looked up.

I heard a calm voice in my head.

"**My son"**

Bobbing above my head was a yellow bow and arrow in front of a blazing sun.

I was a son of Apollo.


	8. Shiny Things and Basketball

It all made sense now.

Throwing darts with Jason.

Singing songs at the campfire.

Getting the best Poetry mark in the class.

Feeling invigorated when I was in the sun at the beach.

And finally shooting the pinecone so accurately.

I was sitting in Hermes cabin on the bunk with everyone around me.

I looked at my finger at my father's ring my mother had given me.

Why hadn't I thought of it before! The ring was obsidian with a topaz on the front that was in the shape of the sun. Intricate sun rays melded into the black. Funny, it was steel before. But there was something it had never done before. When it was in direct sunlight it shone gold.

_Dad must of loved obsidian. _I thought, feeling pride when saying Dad.

Another surprise. When I was running my finger over the topaz, it pressed in with a _click_.

The ring melded into a leather bracer with a finger holder where my ring had been. It expanded into a shield, just like Kade's, same size and everything, except for one thing. This shield was pure imperial gold. I ran my finger over the intricate details. It also had a sun traced on the front with details down to the millimetre. In the front was a topaz in the shape of a diamond. Around the end was a thin band that could do damage if it was pushed against something. On the inside Greek lettering was etched in.

_**To my son:**_

_**Defend with Honour,**_

_**Attack with bravery,**_

_**Sincerely, Dad**_

_**(Apollo)**_

_**Ps: good shot ; )**_

My dad just wrote that with like, Magic! He could tell me anything or give me advice with a snap of his fingers.

Connor shook my shoulder.

"Joey! You have been staring at that thing for like 10 minutes!"

"What?" I shook out of my trance.

"That is so cool, Apollo gave you that? Why?"

"Um he's my dad."

"What! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Sorry I was caught up in this" I indicated the shield.

"I'm sorry to see you go man" Travis admitted.

"No problem, I'm not moving to Florida, Just 10 meters to the left." this got a laugh out of everyone.

After goodbyes were given, I rolled my trunk over to Cabin 7. My new home.

The cabin almost looked like cabin 11, but it shone a bright gold in the sun, just like my ring, which was currently in ring form. I knocked on the door. Trunk in hand, sword on side, and ring on finger I stood. Someone answered the door. He had blonde hair that was swept aside so he could see easier. He had low cheekbones and a stiff, trusting face on olive skin. He licked his lips as I stood there.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was just claimed, I'm a son of Apollo." He smiled.

"Well in that case welcome to your new home!" he opened the door and showed me the cabin. There were about 7 other campers milling around. Sitting in their bunks, aimlessly polishing bows, etc. We had one hour of free time. Austin (I learned his name) showed me to my bunk which was above his. I filled my bunk with all I owned: camp tee-shirts, jeans, socks, toiletries, hunting knife and my sword in its scabbard. Austin introduced me to everyone and explain that the counselor, Lee, was out at the archery range.

"Hey, you were that kid at the range who hit the pinecone, nice shot!" A camper commented.

"Thanks, it kind of just, happened before I realized it." I explained.

"So what do you do for fun around here?" My eyes swept across the room. I spotted a dart board with the bulls-eye full of holes, some instruments, even a stereo belting out _Springsteen._"

"We are just about to go and shoot some hoops, you interested." I guess children of Apollo are good with most projectile objects.

"Definitely!"

"You can have this one!" Austin threw me a muscle shirt. We ran out the door. I was giddy with excitement. I ran out of the door and jumped, took a couple of steps on one railing, jumped onto the other than onto the ground, running the entire time. I landed on my hands and did a combat roll.

"Show off" Austin retorted. I looked down at my wrist and realized it had a gash; I must have hit a pretty sharp rock.

Me, Austin, Eric and Joel (two Apollo campers) all ran out to the basketball net. We formed teams of me and Austin vs. Eric and Joel and played a 4-person pickup game. It was amazing! I dribbled and spun around Eric and did a backwards slam dunk. When I passed Eric he gave me a high-five. We set in position. Joel threw to Eric but I jumped in the way and passed it to Austin who caught it in the air and slam dunked it. I passed by and gave him a high five. Austin passed me the ball and I caught it. It was like I knew exactly what angle to throw at, how to roll it off my fingers and how hard to throw it.

_Swoosh._

Nothing but net.

We pranced around each other like professionals. Spinning and dribbling through our legs. Throwing from anywhere and getting bank shots, behind the back shots, and swishes. I remember something Nico had told me on the first day of camp.

_Flashback_

_Nico's POV_

_I brought Joey passed the cabins towards the Dining Pavilion for supper. The Apollo campers were going towards their cabin to get changed for supper. They walked with an air of popularity; they had quivers on their backs and bows in hand. It's not like they were mean or snobby, Hades they were actually great guys. It seemed like they were popular without even trying, just likeable._

"_Who are they? Joey inquired._

"_Apollo Campers" I explained. "Everyone likes them"_

"_I definitely wasn't that at all my others schools. I always envied those guys."_

"_Enough of them, you should see that dining hall."_

"_Why is there a crack in the floor?"_

"_That's another story for another day..."_

_End of Flashback_.

Austin swished one and I went to get the ball. I looked back, Austin was flirting with a small group of passing Aphrodite campers (not any I blue-ified) who were staring. I looked around and everyone caught a glimpse or two at the popular kids, especially the girls. I turned and Eric and Joel had also found girls. I felt like such a loser. I quickly trotted over beside Austin who introduced me to Ally and Jennifer. Thankfully Jen showed an interest in me. They followed us over to the chairs, which we sat down in. I didn't realize how tired I was, it was just before supper so we had been shooting hoops for a good hour.

"Austin, what are the teams for Capture the flag today?"

"Oh, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Demeter and Hades vs. Ares, Poseidon, Dionysus, Hephaestus and Aphrodite."

I nodded and turned back to Jen, who was talking about how devastating it was when you lost your make-up when the horn blew.

"Got to go change I'm going to be late!" I turned and saw Miranda from Demeter frown when she saw me talking to Jen. Jealousy? I think so!


	9. Capture the Flag!

I went and changed into my normal clothes. I followed Austin into the dining pavilion, me and Joel pushing each other around the entire way. I sat beside Jason and Austin.

"Iced tea" I stated and sipped from my goblet, commenting on Jason and Eric's conversation about whether tin cans are more nutritional than a steak.

The wood nymphs interrupted us when they brought in Barbecue ribs, glistening with barbecue sauce and lined with succulent straw berries, the same meal as my first day of camp. They seemed bigger though, giving us plenty of energy for capture the flag. I got up and walked over to the bronze brazier with everyone else, and slid two ribs and three strawberries into it.

_Thanks Dad, thanks for the ring, thanks for claiming me, and keep Camp Half-Blood safe._

I sat back down and started engulfing ribs. Taking breaks only for sips of iced tea.

_"Braap!"_

"Pardon me guys" Jason commented.

"Eat lots; you need to be ready for Capture the flag, it's much harder than you think." Yew pointed out.

Blue team met up in the dining hall, 4 tables pushed together formed a meeting place. A large map of the forest was layed on the tables, marking our position on the west side. It was a real war council. Each counselor brought two lieutenants to the meeting. Yew from Apollo brought Austin and me. The Stoll brothers from Hermes brought Kade. Annabeth from Athena (who was team leader) brought Malcolm and a girl named Trish. Katie from Demeter brought Miranda (awesome) and Cathy. And just Nico from Hades.

"Alright here is our strategy" Annabeth announced.

"Hermes, Apollo and Nico will guard the flag. The bulk of Athena and Demeter Cabins will charge straight in. But all of the counselor will bring their two lieutenants and circle around to the flag. Athena and Demeter will go north. Apollo and Hermes will go south. Understood?" everyone said understood.

"Annabeth, Nico should take my place and I will act as a medic for the main force, hardly any of the Apollo cabin can heal more than a cut." Michael said standing up.

"Noted, ok we can do that"

Michael pulled me to the side as everyone went to prepare.

"You need a bow, here" he handed me a quiver of arrows and a bow he was carrying.

"I trust you know you to use these" he added with a smile.

"Also, if you every need to perform a heal just let it flow, sing a Hymn to Apollo and just do your best."

"Thanks, I'll do my best" I moved my sword to my belt and put the quiver and bow over my shoulder. I walked with newfound confidence out the door.

Everyone was polishing armour and sharpening swords on the steps so I followed suit. I pulled out Viper, (what I had named my blade.) and sharpened it, which was doing next to nothing because I had got it sharpened. I pressed my ring and my shield came out. I had never realized but my sword, not my shield gave off a glow. I would have to put it away when I was sneaking around.

We sat as a group at our base and prison, Zeus's fist.

The horn blew and I flew south-east with Nico and Austin. The Stoll's and Kade ran beside us. Kade had flipped his coin and twisted his bracelet. He ran with his hand high, keeping his spear out of the trees. I had my shield out but my sword was still at my side. Nico raised a hand and we all stood in silence. We hadn't even reached the river yet. Slowly but surely a group of 12 Ares and a couple sneering Hephaestus campers came into sight. We were in position but Nico still had his hand up. Me, Austin and yew had our bows out knocked. One kid yelled.

"It's them, Charge!" Yew made a gesture with his hand and we charged. Gods I wish they hadn't spotted us! The group smiled, especially one girl. I fired an arrow and it hit an Ares camper in the arm, who dropped his sword. Austin follow suit. Nico and the Stoll's were engaging them. Nico was amazing. I saw him disarm a kid then stab him all in one motion with his Stygian iron sword. Yew had already disarmed two but he fell down. I looked back and saw the rest of Ares Cabin._ An Ambush!_

I called out but they had already taken down Austin. I think they intended on hostages because one of them hauled them over his shoulder and turned back. Luckily, Stoll's, Kade and Nico were good fighters; and there were only 5 original Ares kids left. I called out "Ambush!" and they nodded and plowed through the five. We ran, sometimes spears would land right at our feet. I called to Nico,

"We can't run forever, what will we do?"

"Wing it!" he yelled" turn, fight and have some fun!" he smiled.

I pressed my ring and pulled out Viper. To be honest, I felt pretty boss. I breathed quickly and tried to remember my two sword fighting classes. Kade was beside me, which gave me comfort.

The wave hit. I was faced with two Ares kids with swords and shields. I blocked one against my shield and knocked the other's sword away with Viper. Both of them struck at once against my shield and I took a step back, my shield wouldn't hold forever, so I decided to improvise. I charged and yelled;

"For Apollo!" the Ares kids were taken off guard and I slashed high, and then stabbed low in the knee. They went down and i pointed my sword at them in front of me. All the other campers turned away from it and I noticed it was glowing brighter, and in there eyes. I smiled. While they were disoriented I charged, stabbing limbs mostly and disarming. I saw Kade block then stab expertly. Then he threw it like a javelin and it struck the girl in the shoulder. As he ran by he pulled it out. I cut a path through them and Nico, Kade and Travis followed me.

"Where's Connor?" I called out.

"Captured!" Kade called back. We kept running, hoping to run into another member of the blue team.

Our running stopped at a clearing which held the flag. Wow, that was total luck. I looked back and we had lost Nico.

"Nico too?" I asked.

"Yeah, he tripped and they grabbed him." Travis whispered.

"They are trying to dwindle the counselor's numbers down; I think they know the main force is a diversion."

I thought what to do. I asked,

"Travis did you notice any others on our way here." I looked around, Travis was gone.

"They are invisible!" Kade called out. Of course. I decided to run for the flag, Kade was a good runner if they got me. I ran into the clearing and grabbed the red flag, then tucked it in the bands of my shield arm. I made a beeline for the river but I ran into a wall of red archers. I skidded and raised my shield, which went thump numerous times. I looked at the inside of the shield and it shifted. Apollo was telling me something. I squinted and read,

_**Well your in a pickle. **_

_**How about firing the arrow in the back of the quiver?**_

_**-Dad**_

I thought, well we are screwed anyway. I reached back and realized there was one arrow separated from the rest. I grabbed it and knocked it. It shown much brighter than Viper and I nearly had to close my eyes. I let it go and it hit the ground right in front of the red wall. It exploded with an overwhelming blast of light.

It disoriented all of them perfectly. Not one archer wasn't holding their eyes or on the ground. I ran by and picked it up. I looked back and thankfully Kade was still there, spear in hand, but now his shield had two arrows sticking out of it in the cracks. He smiled at me; he was having the time of his life. We kept running but we hit Clarisse, (I remembered her name.) she stood with her electrical spear raised with a swing and a smile; she knocked out Kade with its shock.

She raised it and was ready to stab me, but suddenly it wasn't there. She reached back to hit me with her shield but vines pulled it off her arm. I smiled, then ran past Clarisse and knocked her down by hitting the back of her knees with my shield. I kept running and soon I was running alongside Miranda.

"Thanks back there!"

"No problem, but let keep running!'"

"Agreed"

We kept running until we could see the river but there was one problem, Percy stepped out of the tree's with a ball of water in his hands and the entire Hephaestus cabin.

"Going somewhere?" he asked with a smile. I thought about my choices. I would have to fight it out. My quiver had snagged on a tree so my bow was useless. Unless... yes it would work.

"Yeah," I answered, "forward!" I shot the gold arrow (That i had amazingly held onto) quickly at the cabin. It disoriented them all. I ran but Percy made a sweeping motion with his hand. The water in his hand lashed out and grabbed my ankle.

"No!" I yelled. As I was falling down, using all of my Ultimate Frisbee skills, i threw my shield with the flag in it across the river.

It made a hill over the Campers and straight into Miranda's hands. She dived and landed on the other side, inches away from Percy's magic water-hand that was just about to grab it.

The Campers groaned. I ran over and Miranda ran up to me and hugged me.

"You know we are ending up like this more and more often..." I joked. She pulled away and punched me in the arm playfully.

"Thanks" she said. "That was a real gentleman act; most guys I know have too much pride to do that"

"Well I'm not like most guys." I commented perfectly. She smiled. I smiled. Perfect. I leaned against a low tree branch. Of course, it was broke and fell over. Miranda grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"Um, I swear, I'm not clumsy I just-"she put her finger to my lips

"Don't worry; you're cute when you're clumsy." She walked away leaving me staring with a dropped jaw. Women!


	10. Combat Training

**Ok guys, for all those Kade fans out there... this chapter is Kade's first POV!**

Kade's POV

I woke up and did a big stretch. I threw on my Camp tee and jeans and my digital watch. 7:00 on Thursday, Capture the Flag Tomorrow. I looked at my schedule, Combat Training, monster assault techniques, archery, blah blah blah, there it was, Climbing wall with Satyr's then Canoe Races with Naiads. Awesome. After I helped clean the Cabin I put on my bracelet and put my coin in my pocket. Sneaking out of the Cabin I went down to the fire-pit where some Hephaestus campers were hanging around. I quickly backed away as I realized they were discussing when the best time to soak bronze after heating when you are forging a sword. I had heard my fair share of these conversations, and I had only heard one. I headed over to the Bridge where Travis, Katie and Connor were hanging out. I still had an hour so we sat there leaning against the glass, Connor dropping marbles into the river just to see them splash, then I realized I had 3 minutes to get ready for Combat training with Ares!

Me and the rest of the Hermes Cabin walked into the Arena. It was like a coliseum. There were seats all around the top. The middle fight area had a 20 foot diameter. Inside that was a 10 foot ring for the fighters. Hermes Cabin was on one side, Ares on the other. It was a cabin challenge, the winner got no cores for a week, and we had to win. You had no idea what it was like to clean out a pegasi stable. They had a little tournament set up on the wall. I checked and i fought someone name Toby first. I spotted him out in the crowd, for he was already looking at me. He smiled an evil smile and brought his thumb across his neck. Honestly! How old are you! This guy was going down.

Chiron called out.

"The first match will be Toby and Kade knock your opponent out of the rink to win!" I walked to the middle of the ring and did my best to look tough, but this Ares guy was intimidating. His long sleeved shirt looked like he had stuffed tennis balls in them. His neck was so thick it looked like his head went all the way to his shoulders. If this guy was any bigger he would be a bull on two legs.

"Draw your weapons!" I shook out of my daze at Chiron's voice. I'll admit it, I looked pretty awesome. I flipped my coin and caught it in the air as a 2 meter bronze spear. I rolled my arms around each other and it twisted my bracelet, which expanded to a shield, also bronze. This Ares kid brought out a dented buckler and a sword that looked like it could chop wood better than an axe. I sized him up, calculating how i could beat him. Most people think Hermes kids are all thieves and pranksters, but I'm different. Calculating, solving, sizing, I couldn't stop if i wanted to.

_Luckily I have a longer reach, but I'll have to be careful, a swing of the sword and my spear is toast. My best bet is to f-_

"Begin!" I shook out of my daze. I really need to pay more attention. I started hopping on the balls of my feet, getting ready. While I was in the air he swung sideways on my shield air, hoping to knock me out of the ring. I had other plans. I ducked down and turned my shield parallel to the ground then kept turning clockwise. I swung my spear butt to knock him in the head but he turned and chopped straight down with his sword. I panicked and pulled my left shield arm which was on my right and my right spear arm on my left together, pancaking his sword at a 45 degree angle to the ground. He saw his opening and slammed his buckler into my face knocking me back. I took a couple steps and without realizing I had two feet on he line. I was halfway along taking another step but i stopped, waving my arms for balance. He was stepping forward so I did the logical thing and improvised. I swung my spear head in the dirt and ran forward, using it as a pole vault. My combat boots caught him square in the face. While he was off his guard I continued in a flurry of attacks. I knocked him right to left with my shield then my spear butt. (As much as I hated him I didn't want to hurt him.) I put two hands on my spear and feinted, then caught him under the chin in an epic undercut. To finish it off, while his head was back. I brought the spear down with all my might on his helmet. I heard a loud _clang _and instantly he was on his belly in the dirt, out of the circle.

"We have a winner! Kade shall advance; next up is Connor against-"Chiron's voice faded to the background.

"I can't believe he won!" Toby exclaimed. I knew this guy! Time for revenge.

"Damn right I did!" I said with ultimate confidence.

"Look kid!" Toby said angrily. "If this was real war, we would both know who would win!"

"Yeah, me!" I had sweat dripping down my face in drops. I was tired from my first fight, but you can bet I wasn't going to show it.

"Don't flatter yourself, just because you won-"

"I didn't win, I kicked your ass! Wow, does my footprint really look like that?" I leaned into his face squinting.

He roared and pulled out his wide hand-and-a-half-sword.

"Bring it on Dumbass!" I did a quick coin flip and grabbed it as a spear. I it reared back and stood ready. " I beat you the first time using only half my spear!"

"**ENOUGH" **Chiron boomed. He was on his hind legs before. He brought them down with a deep boom between us. Dust went up in a surprisingly large cloud.

"You are on the same side! It is hard enough for Demigods to survive without us killing each other!"

"Chiron you don't understand he-"

"I don't care and it doesn't matter, both of you will be cleaning the Stables and Sweeping the Amphitheater fdor a week, now go!"

Chiron didn't understand, he didn't know a thing, Nothing at all. He didn't realize how personal this is, how deep this hatred went. He didn't realize what this meant to me, and what this person had done.

Toby killed my mother.

**How was that for a cliff-hanger! Well there is your Saturday special Kade- POV, and Chapter 11 will follow suit. Man, I need to remember to do these more often. There will be more chapter's up soon, and keep sending me Ideas!**

**PS: we will be bringing in a new character, Ryan!**


	11. Stupid Toby

**Here is the part 2 of Kade's POV, and then we will mix around with some new characters and Joey.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: I don't own on PJO**

**Guy: then who does?**

**Me: *sigh* that guy -**

**Rick Riordan: Hell yeah! **(* *)  
/I\  
/ l \

/ \

_Toby had killed my mother._

I had to go to a foster home. She was the only family I ever had. The only person who cared what happened to me. He had no idea what the lack of everything was like: anyone to tell you to scrub behind your ears, no one to tell you to eat your vegetables, no one to kiss your forehead and tell you she loves you, no one to make sure you get good grades, no one even to make sure you go to bed on time. After she died i went into temporary depression, I tucked all that hate, anger, sadness and frustration and put on a mask. For so many years I used that mask, a crust covering a boiling, churning sphere of molten hate, so that it became my life. Confidence, charm, popularity, they had been a curtain for my thoughts for so long they became my life. That was all that wanted to be when i was in depression, so I did that. Instead of pretending to be popular, confident and charming, I _was_ popular, confident, and charming. That was my life now, but there was still that compressed, explosive hate underneath. I had learned to use that to fuel my actions. This happened when I fought Toby, the first and second time. The second time I realized who he was. That weasel! That scoundrel!

_Flashback_

_The lunch bell rang. I walked from the computer lab to the down stair where my homeroom was. I passed the science lab and looked in. There was Toby in detention. He had called off the teacher all class so he was taking his lunch hour away from him. He regarded me coldly._

"_Just keep walked." He commented with a sneer, and I did just that. I had no intention to get involved._

_26-11- around twice to the left- 9._

_My locker clicked and I opened it up, putting away my binder. _

_Kade you stupid, you left your pencil case there._

_I walked past the science class again. Toby was up and he was fiddling with the science lab. My eyes widened when I realized he had all the natural gas nozzles on._

_Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss._

"_Toby don't you'll-"He slammed the door in my face. I pounded against it with my fist and tried the doorknob. Locked. That is so Toby. Spoiled rotten. Always pushing the envelope. _**(To all those who have had the pleasure of reading The Outsiders, he is like Bob.)** _His parents bubble-wrapped the world for him and he thought he ruled it. He turned those nozzles on because he was bored. Curios even. He did it because he could. He wanted to be that bad guy that everyone was scared of, he wanted more than anything to set the status quo. I ran to the staff room. My shoes pounded against the tile. If I didn't get someone we could suffocate, or worse, explode! This was serious! I opened the door to the entire staff laughing over angel cake and blueberries._

"_Toby has the natural gas on and he locked the door. My mom burst out of her chair running without a word. Her blonde hair was everywhere. Her kind, trusting face set in determination. I followed her down to the lab where she stuck her key in the door, then shoved it open. There was Toby looking at us with raised eyebrows, a cigarette in his mouth. He was trying to sneak one in. He probably didn't even know what those nozzles were. The worst part was: the cigarette was unit, he had his lighter in hand and was going to light it._

_My mo turned and pushed me through the side window directly across the hall. _

"_Mom!" I yelled. I tried to stop but the momentum was to strong. I took another step back into open air. I burst through the window backwards. A million tiny Kaleidoscopes sent beams of pure light in every direction, a phenomenal light show, hadn't it been so deadly. I kept falling. The closest ground was a 7 foot drop onto the roof of the attached Elementary school. I fell and landed shoulders first. I winced as shards of glass pushed deeper into my back. A large gigantic __Whoosh! __Swept through the school as the gas lit. I screamed in pure horror as flames burst out of the window I had fell in and every window in a 40 foot radius. The roof went up 5 feet and ten came down the wrong way, part of it was leaning in the science lab, half-broken. I shook slightly as I lifted myself up. I trudged slowly in jerks. I pulled myself onto the next floor and made my way to the science lab. The glass shards bit into my arms and shoulders the most. I walked to where the science lab was, now a charred skeleton. There was nothing. I went around several times. Double, triple, quintuple checking, my mom was nowhere. I dropped down on my knees and started to cry. There I sat, in the smouldering science lab. I picked up my mom's ring from the ashes. I held it in my hands, bent over a continued to cry. I never left the school that day. I had nowhere now thanks to Toby. All night I was sobbing in the science lab with my only memory of my mom in my hands._


	12. Cautios Generosity

**Ig here, again.**

**Originally this was just an experiment to step way out of my comfort zone but its gone way farther than I thought. I've decided to put in a quest so be prepared for some action! But first, I'm going to do a chapter for Miranda and Joey. This is a huge step for me, so I have no idea what my writing skills (however lacking they might be) will make out of it. **

**Joey's POV**

After I got up, I put on my watch, ring and slipped on a camp tee and jeans. Everything was quiet, as usual, except for the portable stereo softly spewing out Beethoven's symphonies.

Sneaking past Yew, I shook Eric awake. We slipped past everyone and entered the attached storage shed, used as instrument storage.

He handed me a violin case and took one for himself.

"So, do you know any instruments?" Eric asked, being by far the most musical of our cabin.

"Other than a harmonica and I could probably pick up a triangle." I joked. After a quick chuckle, he commented;

"I promise you will pick up so quickly on it, it's like you were made to play it."

We walked up to the amphitheatre, and I was still impressed by its size. It was perfect for any instruments because of its design.

We sat in the middle on the raised platform. Eric pulled over a stool for him and we began.

After one hour of violin practice, we walked straight to the cabin to drop off our instruments. I had decided on one thing, being a child of Apollo was awesome. You could hit a dime with an arrow, heal stuff, and you could pick up on any instrument in a jiffy. After only one hour, I was already an intermediate violin player. After asking Eric, he agreed to teach me all the instruments available to Apollo cabin.

Seeing Nico on the way to the dining pavilion, I tapped his left shoulder and moved to his right. When he turned back around, i stuck out my neck, and jokingly yelled 'Boo!"

Nico jumped back and muttered, "son of a..." and I chuckled on the way to the dining facility.

Inside the pavilion, after porridge, (which I never did like but I loved the taste of this stuff) I started discussing the best type of bow with Michael. I told him that he probably like Yew bows, but he didn't get it.

I strained my neck to look towards Demeter table over Joel's spiky hair. Seeing Miranda, I waved. She saw it and smiled back and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Austin punched me in the shoulder.

"Ow! What the heck?"

"Caught you!" all the boys laughed and the girls chuckled.

"Shut up." I commented and scraped the bottom of my porridge bowl with my spoon.

"Man look at Miranda, is she a looker or what?" Eric commented. I kicked his shin hard from under the table. He snorted a laugh and adjusted his posture.

Luckily my siblings had lost interest. Austin had even pulled out an arrow and was inspecting it.

After all of the day's activities, we had an hour before lunch. I was walking towards my cabin when I was tapped on the shoulder. It was a very, muscular guy several years older than me. I recognized him as the camper who made the Hermes comment on my first day of camp.

"Follow me" he stated simply

I followed him to the forge attached to his cabin. Inside it was insane. There was a couple campers there and they were all insanely strong. I wouldn't want to be caught down an alley with the youngest of these.

I caught up to Beckendorf (I learned his name) and he went over to a table with a sheet over it.

"Yew called in a couple of favors to get these for you, but they are finally done."

"What, are you serious?"

"Yup, he thinks your something different, and you need a bow." He quickly pulled off the sheet and revealed the treasure underneath. It was a golden bow with a quiver full of arrows matching..

"Oh my..." I trailed off. I picked up the bow and it was light as a feather. It was perfectly weighted and it felt like an extension of my arm, just like a wrist or a finger.

I tested the weight and it pulled back all the way perfectly. It wasn't hard at all, as easy as clenching a fist.

" How did you-?"

"Dyed celestial bronze. The quiver is enchanted with the same enchantment as riptide; the arrows will start reappearing if you will them too.

"Why? It's not like we are at war or anything?"

Beckendorf looked around uncomfortably.

"Nobody has told you yet haven't they?" my face instantly turned stern.

"Told me what?" I demanded.

"There's something stirring in San Francisco, details are blurry, but Chiron is keeping us all prepared."

"So, what do I need to do?" I asked.

"At least one Weapon on hand. Always. Period." I thought back to Viper, which was in its scabbard sitting messily on my bed. In an emergency all i would have would be my shield to defend me until I could find a weapon.

" One flaming arrow and an explosion signals danger." He continued. "But don't get to riled up, Chiron just wants to be ready, but for now we are on lockdown."

I slung my quiver over my shoulder, and then my new bow. Thanks so much Charlie, its-"

"Thank Yew not me, but tell him we are even."

"Will do" I commented. After a couple more thank you's, I left and headed to the archery range to try out my new bow. At eh archery range I set down my bow and went up to the bulls eye. I moved it as far back as I could, touching the trees.

I went back to the stand and pulled out my bow with newfound confidence. I knocked my bow and lined it up with my eye. I released it and it hit the target at the very edge, barely on. I lowered my bow with a curse.

A surprised whistle made me turned around. I smiled when I saw Miranda.

"Hey." I said simply looking nervously from the ground to her.

"I expected better out of an Apollo camper."

"Well it's kind of far away, I need some practice-"

"No excuses! You don't need practice, you just need encouragement."

'So," she continued," every time you get in the inner red circle, I will step one step closer to you."

I smiled. She was about 5 big steps away.

"Deal" I said.

I knocked my bow and fired. It landed on the edge of the middle.

"That counts!" I commented. She smiled and took one step closer.

I did the same thing and it landed in the circle. She smiled and took one step closer. Every time we smiled at each other.

_Thwack_

_Thwack_

Two more steps. She was now one step away. I looked her right in the eyes. Without breaking eye contact, I pulled up my bow and fired. I looked and it was just outside the circle. I looked at her. She giggled and said;

"I didn't see it" she took one more step and we were a hair's breadth away. I looked slightly down at her and smiled. She was perfect.

"What now?" I asked.

"Now you're with me." She said with a grin. I opened my mouth and said;

"Miranda, I have to say something. I-"

_POW! _

I was cut off by an explosion. I looked and it came from a flaming arrow.

'The camp!" I exclaimed. I started running alongside her towards The Big House. I looked down and noticed she had grabbed my hand. I looked in her eyes. I caught them and saw her expression. She was nervous and she was looking towards me for comfort. I pushed that out of my head. My home was in danger!


	13. The Beginning of The End

**Chapter 13**

**The Beginning of the End**

Miranda and I approached the Big House at high speed. All the campers had come here, not knowing where else to go. There was so much commotion and talking, it was hard to hear anything.

"Francisco..."

"Could it..."

"Monsters..."

"In the camp?"

I frantically turned around at the last one I heard. I grabbed her shoulder furiously and asked;

"What's in the camp?"

"Well, a monster, or at least something bad. There's so much bustle because campers are missing."

"Who!"

"Well" she paused, "Percy, Nico and Annabeth. They might not be missing, just AWOL as of now.

Jason ran up to me as fast as his goat legs would carry him and told me, "follow me, now!"

Miranda and I followed across the camp him to half-blood hill. On the way it was chaos. Everyone had heard the rumours and was trying to prepare. About half of them were wearing quickly-put on armour and nearly all had weapons thankfully. At the hill there was a battle going on. At first I thought they were after the fleece, but I looked and they were far away from it and they weren't trying to get there, and the dragon was still curled around it, smoke coming from his nostrils.

There was a bunch of monster pushing against the boundaries but couldn't get in. one did though, and I had no idea what it was. Her hair was made of vipers first of all, but I wasn't stone so it wasn't Medusa. She also has bat wings on her back and tusks sticking out the corners of her mouth. Nico and Percy were on the ground, knocked out (I hoped) and Annabeth was fighting the creature

I was frantically running towards them (I was still too far away for a good arrow-to-the-eye) when Annabeth reached for her Yankee's cap

_Yes!_ I thought but then the monster did something strange. It reared back, and then stuck out her neck, as if yelling boo. Her snake/hair lashed forward and Annabeth went stiff, hitting the ground next to Nico.

"No!" I yelled. I ran so fast, I broke from Miranda and seemed to glide over the land. I hurled up the hill at full speed. Seeing the monster, I jumped at a vertical I have never hit before, then pulled out Viper and went to slash it all the way to the ground.

She interrupted me by simply holding out her hand, which stopped me in mid-air. I froze, unable to move just like Annabeth and my friends.

"Not so fast Demigod!" when she yelled demigod she (apparently with only her hand) threw me flat into the ground face first.

Luckily Viper fell to the side and I was not injured by it. Unluckily I slammed hard into the ground. My nose was pouring blood and my entire body was slick with sweat, which only made it flow faster. I looked up from the ground and looked at the monster.

She made a finger-wagging motion and said"nuh-uh"

"Bad demigod! Nobody tries to attack Stheno without being punished!"

I faked a groan and a slight roll, but I was really loosening my bow. Using the enchantment, I made an arrow appear in my hand. I waited until she looked away, then with great difficulty, knocked and pulled back the bow. It hurt like heck, but i had to suffer through it.

"He will be pleased, oh he will be very pleased." I fired an arrow the second she turned to look at me. It was going to hit her exactly it the heart, but it glanced off, as if it was solid concrete. Stheno moved her hand and knocked my bow and arrows away from me, and threw me about 10 feet more to the right.

"I would punish you more for that personally, but the person who granted me my great power wants these puny demigods, so I will let Charlie deal with you."

I got up, hunched over with my arms hanging. I looked up, she took a snake from her hair, which apparently wasn't attached to her head, and threw it on the ground. I stood to my full height and looked at Charlie. It wasn't so harmless. I was wrong.

It started growing, its skin bubbling like Jayden's. It kept growing to a very big size.

_Okay it'll stop there. Okay it can't get bigger than that. Oh my gosh it's even bigger!_

Stheno waved bye and left the camp. Now out of my daze I pulled out Viper and chased her, but the Giant Snake cut me off and knocked me off my feet with the end of its tail.

I couldn't get by, I would have to fight it and worry about my friends later.

"Let's see which Viper has the biggest bite" I challenged. It bared its fangs, and my vote wasn't with me. I started shuffling to my left, but the snake saw me and followed my movements. I slid my hands over each other and brought out my shield, which had no advice, I'm doing this on my own.

I started out by rapidly shuffling to the left and right. I took two shuffles to the right when the snake lunged. I rolled to the side, feeling the air movement I was so close.

I hopped on the balls of my feet and opened my arms wide to get its attention.

"Am I too fast for you? C'mon fight me! Show me your bite!" The snake attacked again but I jumped back out of the way.

"Show me your bite!" I yelled at the top if my lungs, the tendons in my neck bulging slightly and my brows furrowed hard.

It attacked again but I was ready. When it lunged, I jumped up and raised Viper high in the air. When it came down I tried to bring it down on its eye, but it moved and I stabbed it in the nostril. It shook me off and I landed on the ground (it's becoming a habit of mine) with a _thump_. The snake was shaking its head back and forth, furiously trying to get rid of Viper

I quickly regained my footing and ran around it, using my shield to block the acid spit spewing from it mouth. Finding its tail, I hauled myself on it and did my best to climb. Luckily it had spikes on its back which made good footholds. I reached my hand out into thin air as I was running and two arrows materialized in it. Finally at the head, I went to attack it but one last shake of the head nearly threw me off. I reached out a hand and caught it on the other nostril. It opened it mouth to bite me but I frantically pulled out Viper and used it to prop open its mouth, stopping it from biting me.

The snake only tried to bite on Viper harder, which only pushed it deeper into its mouth. I furiously swung around and landed on the snake neck just below its head, as if I was riding it. I put an arrow in each hand, tips in and raised my hands in the air. In brought them together hard, one landed perfectly in each eye. It shook its head ten times more furiously than before it hit the ground hard with a overly-loud _thump_, throwing me in front of it and off of its head but still facing it. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at Charlie. The arrows disappeared and landed in my quiver, but I had to messily pull out Viper, I turned around only to be hugged by Jason.

"Man I thought you were done for! How did you- Did you actually- what made you-"

I opened my eyes and realized nearly the entire camp was around me. Jason let go and backed into them. I stood there, looking like a war hero with a bloody sword in my hand and a quiver full of arrows, light-brown hair messy from sweat, and some blood stains down the front, as Chiron stepped out from the crowd.

"Very impressive Joey, not many campers can take on a full grown giant snake, (actually most of those who could were captured) your battle techniques seemed hardened and perfected, your agility off the charts. I see good things in you Joey."

I nodded with a smile and said, "Thank you sir" Chiron went off to the big house to talk to Mr. D about this. After right there I nearly passed out. From what I remembered, I learned that Stheno had warped the camp borders so that Charlie could go wherever he wanted, but the campers couldn't leave. Since I was technically outside the borders fighting it was why I could move around and not be cut off by a border.

Miranda ran up to me and hugged me saying, "If you ever do something that stupid again Joey I-I" she pulled away and I saw hurt in her eyes," I just care about you Joey, please be careful. I don't want to see you end up like most Demi-gods."

Now wasn't the time for being happy at her recent words. I pulled her close and whispered lightly;

_I'm sorry_

I turned around and looked at the corpse of Charlie. All of a sudden it turned to gold dust, leaving only a fang. I walked over and picked it up, recognizing it as a war trophy.

Many campers came around me, patting me on the back and saying congratulations and I was the happiest I have been in my life, other than the fact that my friends were captured.

In life I was never special. I was good at math, but me and George got the same mark. Sure I was a demigod, but so was everyone else and Percy was better by lots. But the number of campers who have done this you could count on one hand.

Austin came up to me with a blank face, I stared right back at him. Then he smiled and patted me on the back.

"Congrats, but go snake riding more often and you won't see many summers." I saw his point and thanked him.

There was a disturbance in the crowd and someone yelled;

"Let me through!" Kade popped out in my little circle. He looked at my sword and fang then said slowly," Son of a B****, you killed that thing didn't you?"

After explaining it to him (he was at the stables, pretty much as far as you could be away) he playfully slapped me.

"That for being a reckless bugger, next time doesn't be the hero" I nodded "but this one is for all your luck, and maybe a touch of skill." he smiled and took out his hand. I took it, but pulled him in and patted his back in a bro hug.

" And go shower, you smell worse than the stables!" Kade added.


	14. Nightmares and Information

**Chapter 14**

**Nightmares and information**

**Warning! These next two chapters were written at 2 in the morning!**

Walking back I said hi and filled in the few stragglers of what had happened. They were all pretty shook up, it was a close-knit community. Percy, Nico and especially Annabeth were the glue that held the camp together. They were the most experienced and arguable the strongest.

We had missed supper so Chiron blew the horn and gave everyone 10 minutes to get to the dining pavilion. I had to go straight to the infirmary, on Miranda's orders. Kade went to go get one of my siblings. Suddenly all the pain that my adrenaline had been holding back hit me like a ton of bricks. I would have fell face first on the ground if Miranda wouldn't of grabbed me and helped me sit down. When she tried to lift me up by my left arm I shrieked in pain.

"Ok that's definelty broken." Austin commented as he walked in with Kade. Other than Yew he was the best healer. They ball grabbed me by the armpits and helped me on the bed. I felt so, helpless. Austin handed me a glass of strange liquid.

"Drink it." He stated simply. I smelled it and it smelled normal enough, but when I tasted it, gods was it amazing. It tasted just like Mom's fresh bacon cooked perfectly on Sunday mornings, but in liquid form. I went to take another swig but Kade took it from my hands.

"Don't drink more." Austin warned.

"Why not? What will happen" I asked

"You will kind of combust, you know, suddenly become engulfed in flames and die."

I spit whatever was left of it onto the floor.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"It's Nectar, the drink of the gods. If a mortal drank it they would combust. It's your god half that keeps you alive. It also has amazing healing powers. Austin looked in a cupboard and pulled out a gold roll of cloth. First he healed it by singing a hymn, and then he wrapped it in cloth like a sport hand-wrap. (I looked like I was going to spike some volleyballs.) He then put it in a sling.

"Don't use it for awhile." Austin instructed. "With the nectar, it should be done healing by tomorrow night."

"ok." I said simply. I walked out and headed over to my cabin, saying bye to Miranda and Kade, and went inside. Everyone was depressed, sitting on their beds. When I walked in they raised their heads, and their expression lightened a little. While washing my face, changing clothes, etc, I answered all the questions that they had, except for one from Crystal, "How?"

I honestly had no idea; it all had seemed to slow down while it was happening. It seemed like so long but the entire ordeal probably took 15 minutes. When I was fighting Charlie, I didn't even have to think, in fact I didn't. I just acted without any conscious thought, because my brain already had it planned out in its head.

The Horn blew and I jogged briskly up to the dining pavilion. Sitting down at our table, it was quiet. It was only three campers but it seems all the camp centered on them. There were no Hephaestus discussions about the durability of bronze over steel, no Aphrodite gossip over the cute guys, and finally no Apollo talk at all. There was only Joel humming a slight tune while chewing the apples, strawberries, cheese, and fresh bread that made up the meal.

We all forgot about our food when Chiron got up from table 12. I lifted up my legs and swung them around to face him. Jason followed suit.

"Now as you all know, there was an incident earlier today." Chiron began. "There was an alteration in the camp borders which allowed several monsters in., but I assure you this won't happen again. The borders are kept in place by the gods and they have altered them themselves so this won't happen again. Now, there were several campers taken during the incident. They consist of Nico di Angelo, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase." Everyone bowed their heads a little and some blinked out tears.

"They tried to assault the monster on their own but failed, the assault was continued by a camper but the monster got away. The identity is unknown but"

I leaned over to Jason and asked,

"You guys didn't hear her?"

"Hear who"?" he countered.

I stood up right there and interrupted Chiron.

"Chiron, I know who she is. She called herself Stheno, and she mentioned someone more powerful lending her, much power."

"It seems so, hmm, yes, thank you Joey that helped immensely. Now," he continued but he just explained what happened and I already knew. But when he was done, Chiron said:

"Would all the counselors and Joey Coleman please report to the big house directly at 8:00 tomorrow morning." I looked and met Yew's eyes, but he simply nodded and continued to eat his apple. I finished the supper and the entire time it was still dead silent, even with Chiron's update.

I got up and left the Pavilion, walking directly towards my cabin, very tired.

I climbed over Austin and layed down on my bed, too tired to take off more than my shoes. Even though I was so tired, I had lots of trouble falling asleep. When i did, I was haunted by nightmares.

_Lightning struck on the hill rise, an image of Jason appeared and simply rhymed;_

_**You had better fly, while the darkness can help you hide.**_

_**Troubles coming without control, no one is staying that has got a hope.**_

_The image disappeared, I frantically chased it. It disappeared and behind it was a campfire. There were two logs beside it. One was vacant, but the other was occupied. _

_The occupant was, strange. He was indescribable. It was the strangest feeling, like my eyes could see him but my brain couldn't, kind of like when you forget a dream when you woke up._

"_Suitably don't you think?" his voice was the same feeling. "I always liked April Wine._

"_Who are you?" I asked_

_The figure suddenly had an aura of entertainment. I guess he was smiling._

"_You will learn soon enough, Apollo son."_

"_How-"_

"_I know more about yourself and your father than you do."_

_I tried to leave but I was frozen in place._

_The huge bonfire suddenly had two eyes appear in it. The figure had disappeared. _

"_All you know will soon be destroyed, but you can help them. You must go to San Francisco and destroy Stheno."_

"_But she said it was someone else, and that's next to-"_

"_She was talking about her sister. The gorgons have plotted a surprisingly complex revenge. As far as the mountain do you want to save your friends or not?"_

_Suddenly a beam of light struck through the dream. It started to spread._

_A calm voice warned "Leave!"_

_Apparently the figure hated it. He quickly said,_

"_Go to San Francisco, save your friends!" Then the fire dissipated and I woke up sweating._

My heavy breathing had stirred Joel, so I slowly lay back down. I had no other dreams that night.

In the morning, I changed and went to the Big House

Sitting down on a plush lawn chair, the counselors quickly appeared. I recognized Beckendorf, who winked at me with a smile, Drew, Yew, The Stoll's, (who sat down beside me and asked their own questions wanting a firsthand account, for they weren't there) Katie, who was Connor's girlfriend, and Malcolm from Athena.

Chiron arrived and went right to work, for Mr. D was there also.

"Alright, you all need to be told something. You all know the rumors of San Francisco, so I'm here to inform you of it. There are different enemies out there other than Titans, more powerful, more dangerous enemies. We use a blanket term "Ancients" We believe Stheno have borrowed power from one of these ancient enemies. We have no idea about their intentions, but they most likely want to sacrifice them to the Titans to gain their favor. With an Ancient trying to raise the Titans instead of just Demigods such as Luke, it will happen much quicker. With their alliance, the gods would have more trouble, such as Typhon in the Second Titan war."

"We can't let this 'Ancient' rise. We can't give the Titans another ally." Beckendorf stood and stated confidently.

"Exactly. The gods would know if an Ancient rose, so he must not be in full form yet. We are going to send Heroes on a quest to kill Stheno and her sister before she can sacrifice Percy and the others." We all let that sink in.

"When?" Katie asked.

"We will summon Rachel around the Campfire tonight. Today's events will resume as planned."

We all dispersed back to our Cabins to clean up for Cabin Check.

**Miranda's POV**

The day should have been awesome. I had canoeing and climbing wall with Joey, but he was so depressed all day.

I slammed my paddle across the water and splashed Joey. It shook him out of his daze.

"You have to contribute a little you know. I don't think Austin is too happy." I joked. Joey wasn't paddling because his arm hurt too much and Austin had to do all the work. Katie giggled from behind me.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "You seem out of it."

"It's just-" Katie shot him a look, so he simply mumbled, "Tell you later." Luckily his expression lightened slightly.

We paddled back to the docks and ran over to the climbing wall, which was near.

.


	15. Calm Before the Storm

**Chapter 15**

**Miranda's POV**

Arriving there, I decided it still looked as awesome as the first day of camp.

It was made entirely made of stone, with a bunch of footholds and a buzzer at the top. That would be hard enough considering it rained in the morning and it was slick, but there was lava flowing down it in one main stream and many others trailing off.

"Ladies first." Joey offered with a smile. I stuck my tongue out at him, then smiled and grabbed the first foothold. Putting my foot on one near the bottom, it was nearly impossible to stay on. Stepping one more up, I slipped up, but quickly grabbed a foothold, and used my arms to haul my body up to another foothold. The lava started to bubble so I increased my speed, grabbing another foothold. Suddenly it spilled over. I quickly dodged it, but I lost my footing. I flailed my feet, and one got very stuck in an oddly shaped one. My hand slowly slipped off when I tried to pull myself up. I went completely upside down.

Before doing anything else I quickly grabbed the hem of my camp tee shirt and held it against my waist so it didn't fly up around my shoulders. Luckily the lava didn't flow in the section I was in so I was safe.

Joey was in a cheery mood now so that meant he, Katie and Austin were laughing at my accident.

"Someone just help me!" I yelled. Joey stepped forward, still laughing and proceeded to climb the lava wall with only one arm, bragging about it all the way.

"Hurry up!" in complained.. He stopped at a point where we were looking each other in the eyes but I was upside down.

"Can we do a spider-man kiss?" he joked. I laughed and said,

"No! Just get me down!"

"Oh c'mon! This will be our only chance like ever." He joked again.

"Pleeeeeeeease." I rolled my eyes at I grabbed his chin with one hand, still holding my shirt, and gave him a peck on the cheek

He held it there with one hand, not expecting his strategy to work. Then he looked at me and astonishment turned to happiness. He freed my foot, and then realized he was holding his face with his good hand. He fell backwards and landed on the hard ground. Luckily, he held his left arm out when he fell, it probably hurt like heck. I was already holding onto a handhold so I swung 180° and planted my feet on the ground.

"Are you okay?" I asked frantically walking up to him.

"I'm fine." He said with difficulty. He was lying, I could tell, he was in lots of pain. He wouldn't say anything as we walked together towards the dining pavilion, where the mood was surprisingly lighter than breakfast and supper the night before. It might have been that they were compensating for the missing campers, or just that the lamb chops were amazing. Probably a little of both. I waved bye to Joey and sat down beside my sister, Katie, who elbowed me in the ribs.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"What did Dad say?" she joked. I sighed and played along.

"Boys are bad." I mock admitted.

"Very good." She joked and we both laughed.

"If this Joey character ever hurts you I might have to call Argus to teach him a lesson." I rolled my eyes.

"He is not going to, he's really nice and-"

"Why did you put your answer into a format as if you were dating?" she snapped.

"Because your question was!" I countered. After pondering this, Katie simply said,

"Touché." She hid a smile, but her effort was fruitless and a grin spread across her face. A couple of my siblings joined in. Mandy put her mouth close to my ear and asked:

"So are you and Joey guys actually dating?"

"Well I, um..." My cheeks flushed red. I forgot to tell you, I'm a big blusher.

"I'll take that as a yes." Mandy commented. I pursed my lips in embarrassment and tried to focus on my meal. I didn't know Joey was having just as much trouble at his table.

**Joey's POV**

When I sat down, the teasing started instantly.

"So are you Miranda's puppy dog or what? You never leave her out of your sight." Joel asked jokingly.

"Hey, at least I can get a girlfriend." A chorus of "oooh's" echoed.

"Who said girlfriend?" he countered, erupting even more "oooh's". I reached for an arrow from my quiver with my eyebrows raised in a mock threat. I just snorted a laugh and continued my meal.

"Well I think we need to congratulate the newbie," Austin reached behind everyone and patted me on the back. "Someone got to first base."

"No! I-"

"Did she kiss you?" Austin countered.

"Yes" I muttered after about 5 seconds.. This just sent everyone into belly holding laughter and some pats on the back. I was so embarrassed.

"C'mon guy's, it was on the cheek, how old are you people?"

"And who are you calling newbie?" I remembered. "

"You are right, that was pretty impressive." Eric spoke next;

"Let's play a game called who's hotter. Miranda or-"the entire cabin cut him off by saying "Miranda!" to tease me. I kicked his shins hard from under the table, just like yesterday. He snorted and moved back to hid food.

After several more jokes and teases Yew said

"Ok guys, that's enough, It's getting old." _Thank god._

I looked at Demeter table and waited for Miranda to meet my eyes. When she did, I mouthed _Torture _and indicated my cabin with my hand.

_I know!_ She mouthed back and giggled. My spoon was halfway to my mouth when i was forcefully hit from behind. The soup went all over my face. I sat there, my face showing I was trying to control my anger.

"Oops" was said sarcastically from behind me. I had had enough. I stood up quickly, pushing against the table with my palms. Austin grabbed my good arm and shook his head when I looked at him. I sat back down slowly. Luckily I saw him and recognized him as Toby from Ares, (Kade had told me about his experience with him.)

Outside the pavilion, I moved through the Apollo crowd to be far away from Toby. Surprisingly Toby walked up to Austin, stretched his neck out, and said one word. When he turned around, Austin tapped him on the shoulder. The second he was turned around, Austin swung a strong and hard punch which cracked Toby on the cheekbone, and was enough to send him 180° around and land on his face in the dirt. Austin walked towards me slapping him hands on each other, like you would after a meal. and said;

"Gods I've wanted to do that for a long time."

"What did he say?" I asked.

"Doesn't matter, he could've said hi and I still would have socked him." I snorted and laughed. We walked to our Cabin happiest we have been in a long time.


	16. The Campfire

**Chapter 16**

**The Campfire**

After going to our cabin and changing, we headed out to the campfire as Apollo cabin. I was giddy with excitement, I was going to play violin. Joel had continued to teach me and I was pretty good at it. I chuckled to myself, I'm probably the most excited person at this campfire as far as sing-a-long's go.

I sat down on a cut log and tuned the violin. I figured out a way to hold my violin with my bad arm, so i could play. Yew started playing and we all joined in. it was awesome, even if everyone groaned and only about half sang.

I expertly drew the bow across the strings, emitting a pure note. Most of these sing-a-longs had to do with ancient Greece and I had no in dead what they were supposed to mean. We were finishing one about a dryad and a mirror when I decided to do something to lighten the mood. At the end of our last song, I stood up with my violin and everyone looked at me. Remembering what I learned from the last session, I expertly played the 20-second intro to "The Devil Went Down To Georgia." On the final not, I pulled the bow across the string hard and spread my arms into a bow. This emitted a clap and a laugh form everyone and I sat down. I was putting my violin back in its case when Chiron stepped into the light, and i remembered what he had said.

_I will summon Rachel at the campfire tonight._

"Campers, I will get right to the point. Rachel is here to give a prophecy for several of you. We are sending campers to retrieve the one we lost. We may as well get to it." Chiron stepped aside and a girl stepped into the changing light of the fire she had frizzy red hair, freckles, and a determined look on her faces. She was about two inches shorter than me. Suddenly she went stiff. Her eyes turned green and her mouth opened.

I looked around but no one did anything, so I assumed this was normal. On the first day of camp Nico had explained the whole quest thing to me, but I guess he left this out. Suddenly Rachel started to speak, but I assumed this wasn't her voice, for it sounded strong and deep, and experienced. The voice said:

_**Three young heroes must go west**_

_**Aunts of horse will be their guest,**_

_**Around the campfire, the first and last,**_

_**Will learn a secret long since past.**_

_**Sword, vine and spear,**_

_**Them, they do not fear.**_

_**Campers, beware the land of sand,**_

_**Death may take you, by its hand.**_

_**With them goes the girl of thorn,**_

_**And together fight the bane of scorn.**_

_**Gather all the objects three,**_

_**Put together, they are the key,**_

_**To bring back, the one so lost**_

_**The one who payed the ultimate cost.**_

**Quick bragging session, I came up with the entire prophecy on the spot with no help! I like it!**

I finished writing it down on a piece of paper and stuffed it in my back pocket. I will probably need it later. We all were trying to figure it out in our heads. When Chiron asked if they all were here Rachel paused for a moment, then said yes.

"I can't say who it will be, but if you present someone I could say if they will go." she explained.

_Around the campfire, the first and last, hmm... When was there any kind of order having to do with the campfire... the claiming!_

I shot up before I could stop myself and yelled,

"The first two people are me and Kade!" alot of "what's" came from all angles.

"Pardon me Joey?"

"_Around the campfire, first and last,_ me and Kade were picked first and last on that list!"

"Well aren't you full of surprises, Rachel, is that true?" Rachel closed her eyes, and then slowly nodded.

_Yes!_

"Demeter Cabin, do you have any comments on this 'Girl of Thorn?'" the entire Demeter Cabin knew. They had no expression and no one said anything, until Miranda slowly stood up.

"It's me... I'm the girl of Thorns." Miranda said with surprising discomfort.

_Double yes! There is no one I would rather go with than Miranda! This will be awesome!_

"How do you know?" Chiron asked, squinting at Demeter cabin.

"We are sure of it, but we would rather not give an explanation." Miranda countered.

"Fair enough." Chiron said.

"Sleep as much as you can and prepare tomorrow, you will leave in the afternoon."

As we got up to go, I walked over to Miranda.

"Girl of Thorn?" I asked.

She stared huge daggers into me and said,

"Don't ever, EVER say that again, don't even mention it." She turned fast and walked away, her blonde hair flailing around her head. Weird

I walked over to Kade and talked to him.

"You ready for this thing?" I asked.

"None of us are and we know that, but we are going to give it our all and hit the Ancient where it hurts." He held out his fist.

"Agreed." I stated and hit his fist with mine.

I ran up and caught up with my cabin. It was silent until we were inside the cabin.

All eyes were on me, and it was kind of awkward. Yew walked up with something in his hand.

"For the quest." He stated with a wink. Everyone thought he just handed me arrows but I recognized them, they were flashbomb arrows, the same kind that he had put in my quiver at Capture the Flag. They blinded, dazed and sometimes knocked out the target. I nodded and thank him.

"Oh by the way, I never got the chance to thank you for the bow."

"Actually, it was Chiron. He told me he saw something in you, and that you needed a good bow. Beckendorf owed me a couple, so I pulled some strings."

I thanked him again and turned to the cabin. We had decided to say bye now because it would be too busy tomorrow and we would be in a rush.

I felt bad, I had just made lots of friends and now I had to say bye to them all. The hardest to say bye to was Austin, he had known me longest out of everyone. I unceremoniously put my stuff together for the next morning, and went to sleep. Hoping I wouldn't have dreams.


	17. The Dream

**Chapter 17**

**The Dream**

I went to bed hoping I wouldn't have a dream.

I was wrong, again.

_In my dream, I woke up in the passenger seat of a car._

_Not just any car, a bright red __Maserati. I looked over the edge and nearly screamed._

_Underneath us was the earth. We were flying above the earth!_

"_Amazing, huh." Was said behind me. I quickly put on my seatbelt before looking over at the driver's seat. The person sitting there was casually driving, one arm on the wheel, one leaning on the door._

_The person was around seventeen or eighteen, with sandy hair, and a bright cocky smile. He was wearing a white, sleeveless T-shirt, blue jeans, and loafers._

"_Who are you?" I asked._

_The person put his free hand over his hard in mock emotional hurt._

"_My own child doesn't recognize me?" he asked._

"_DAD?"I exclaimed._

"_Nope." He answered simply. "I'm a hydra and I'm here to kill you."_

"_You're my Father and I've never seen you in my life, I would appreciate it if you were a little more serious!" I explained._

"_Loosen up!" Apollo commented. "And actually you're not seeing me; I'm a thought in your head technically."_

"_Well, this is your chariot?" I asked, trying to change the subject. He spread his hand over it, indicating the Maserati. _

"_She my baby. Have to take it easy when I'm flying though, I could scorch the Earth. Speaking of scorch, China is about to get heat stroke." He said and lowered it in the air._

_I clutched the doors for my life._

"_So, I'm kind of scared, could you get to the point?"_

"_Man, I can't believe your my son, such a scaredy cat."_

"_Are you serious?! I'm plummeting through the air at hundreds of miles an hour and if I fall out I'm thousands of miles above the Earth!"  
_

"_Ok, ok, I'll get the point. Point is, remember your last dream, with the campfire and the light beam?"_

"_How'd you know about that?" I asked_

"_I was kind of the light beam. Point is-"_

"_Privacy much!" I complained._

"_I was just checking up on you! You should be happy! Hardly any gods even care about their kids."_

"_Have you done it all my life?" I asked_

"_Yup. I've been there, even though Ol' gramps says I can't."_

"_Ooh. Rebellious." I commented._

_Apollo looked at me with a raised eyebrow and asked,_

"_Are all future heroes so sarcastic?"_

"_Future hero?" I asked._

"_Yeah, after this quest is bigger than you could ever imagine." Then Apollo remembered something_

"_Oh by the way, nice job with the giant snake there! I like the use of the arrows."_

"_Of course you do." I said, leaning back._

"_Well, what I came here to do is to warn you. The person in your dream, don't trust him. This quest is huge, prepare yourself. Heed the prophecy's warning, remember it and try to figure it out often._

_Lightning struck beside use and Apollo veered out of the way._

"_Darn it! Gramps discovered us and I haven't got to the important part!"_

"_Gramps?" I asked._

"_Have you seen his beard?" My Dad countered. Apollo quickly tried to say more as more lightning struck around us._

"_Go through Texas, but be careful. And the girl of thorns, She-"_

_All I saw was pure white as my dream changed. I was lying down in front of the campfire.  
i looked at its eyes and it spoke._

"_You will bring yourself to San Francisco, and you will get your and Kade's mother back._

"_I know." I said simply. He had visited me several times before. Suddenly I heard struggling. Turning behind me i saw my mother tied to a stake, gagged. I quickly ungagged her and she screamed,_

"_Joey, leave me, don't listen-!"_

I woke up sweating hard. I sat there for several minutes to calm myself down, then slowly laid back down.

Sleep eluded me for the rest of the night.

**I'm sorry for stealing the evil-guy strategy from TLO but trust me, it will turn out very different!**

**Sorry for the shortness!**


	18. The Quest

**Chapter 18**

**The Quest**

Waking up, I acted like it was any morning. I put on clothes, my watch and ring when I remembered it was quest day. Suddenly everything needed to be done faster.

I rushed everything, grabbing any clothes I could get my hands on and throwing them in a pile, making sure everything was ready while amazingly not waking anyone, until I checked my watch and realized it was 6 in the morning. We were leaving at 10 so I had lots of time. Luckily Chiron had convinced Mr. D to excuse us from all of our chores and events this morning.

"_When you get back, you will need to let him beat you at Pinochle, okay?" _Chiron had pulled me away from the campfire and told me with a smile. It comforted me that he said_ "when"_ not _"if."_

I had nodded my head with a smile as a response.

Looking under my bed for socks, I found none. But when I lifted my head and looked back on my bed, there was a gold backpack on it.

_Funny, Must be Austin's._ I thought, but I looked inside and I was proven wrong. Inside, there was _Joey_ embroidered near the handle. Looking up at the roof, I realized it was from Apollo. He had been really kind lately; he must be expecting a pretty big sacrifice soon.

Grabbing the serpent fang from beside my bed, I remembered what Charlie had told me the night I killed the snake.

_As he tapped my shoulder I spun around. _

"_Whoa!" Charlie stepped back. "Watch out! That poisonous!" he commented, indicating the fang._

_I looked at it in my hand._

"_Really?" I asked unconvinced._

"_Definelty, it's one of the worst. A couple drops on your blade and any monster will fall before you." He assured me, still keeping his distance. I clutched my hand around it and brought it in front of my face. I smiled happily, satisfied._

Deciding what to do, I stole Joel's lighter and crept out to the edge of the forest, where I made a quick campfire.

When I was satisfied on its intensity, I pulled the snake fang out from behind my back and set it down on the campfire, where it slowly burnt away. As I watched it, it seemed that the area around me was brighter. Looking around, I realized there was a significant beam set on me like a spotlight at a concert.

It engulfed me, and it was heavenly. It felt just like sitting around a fireplace after a cold winter day, basking in the sun on a beach, and finally a warm mug of Hot Cocoa clutched by cold fingers.

The light exhilarated me, and even after it and the fang disappeared, the feeling lingered and filled me with energy. Instead of returning to my cabin, I went over to Hermes to wake Kade up. Seeing them all asleep, I decided to play a prank on the pranksters, something to remember on the long days up ahead.

Quietly closing the cabin door behind me, I snuck over to the attached bathroom and found what I was looking for, perfect.

Tiptoeing over to Connor, I slowly raised my hand over him when he flashed open his eyes and grabbed it. His other hand went over my mouth to stop me from yelping.

"No one pranks me, but you can prank Kade even better than this lame prank." He whispered. Connor got up and followed me to Kade's bottom bunk, where he was snoring happily. I had to hold in a smile as I set up the prank

+.+.+.+

I stood outside the cabin, arrow drawn. Raising it to my eye, I released it perfectly.

It struck the wall and stayed there, much like a dart. It had sliced through a string along the way, which suspended a pie. It fell straight on Kade's head, simple but effective. Kade shot up; he unknowingly had a headband on with a spike on the front. When he got up, this popped a large balloon full of whip cream, all over his body.

He slowly got out of his bed, and wiped of his eyes, putting on his glasses. He stared at me while licking the whip cream off of his lips.

"That's all?" he joked. It wasn't. Connor tapped him on the shoulder, when he turned around Connor smacked him straight in the face with another pie.

Since he couldn't see again, he licked his lips slowly.

"Lemon meringue pie, nice choice Connor." He joked again.

"Hey, who said you can't prank with style?" Connor said while raising his hands in question.

"You guys suck, I'm going to go shower." Kade commented

Connor and I woke the whole cabin with our laughter as we watched Kade trudge to the showers, leaving behind a trail of whip cream and pie filling.

+.+.+.+

After getting Miranda from Demeter Cabin, (she was already awake so I had no fun), we all met together at the charred remains of the campfire for a "quest meeting."

We all took out our weapons and inspected them.

Kade had his bracelet/Shield and coin/spear. Miranda's weapons, which I had only seen at capture the flag, were set of forest-green throwing knives, which were also big enough to use in close combat if needed. Miranda had a large, wide belt that went under her shirt and concealed them. Finally, I had my ring/shield (which I had named Arenafter the best ring known to fiction writing),Viper in its Scabbard, my quiver with the flashbomb arrows and my golden bow. (Since I had decided to name all my stuff, I simply named my bow Shiner.)

"We should go to Niagara Falls." Miranda commented, pointing at the map that we had spread over the bleachers.

"No way! We need to go as quick as possible to California!" Kade countered.

"It's amazing! Thousands of pounds of water thrashing around endlessly in perfect harmony, no wonder its one of the 7 Natural Wonders." Miranda countered.

Both of them looked at me at the same time, eager to gain the last vote for their side.

I looked from side-to-side. After a short debate, I sided with Miranda, pleading forgiveness from Kade with my eyes. Miranda smiled her pearly smile at me happily then went back to the map. Kade looked me in the eyes, and then made a whip sound effect, but there was no humor in it.

"What's wrong with going to Niagara Falls?" I asked Kade.

"What's wrong?" he spurted out. "It's only thousands of gallons of unforgiving water which has killed hundreds in its lifetime. What if I fall in? What if any of us fall in? There would be no hope! None! What would you do to save someone who fell in? You-" Kade then caught himself rambling and stopped talking. I realized something there that I should have realized a long time ago, Kade was terrified of water. He never went to any lakes, I had never seen him at the school swimming pool, and he never went within 15 feet of the shore at the beach. Now I felt really bad about it, the only benefit is that Miranda is now smiling at me.

"So how are we going to get there?" i asked

"We are going to take a rental car and 'forget' to take it back." Kade said; eager to change the subject.

"Using-"Kade lifted up a fake credit card to answer my question, so I nodded in response. Everyone had packed a backpack so I pulled out the one Apollo gave to me. I managed to stuff in jeans, t-shirts and a hoodie to fit in. I also managed to fit Viper in the back, a large flashlight, and surprisingly all of Kade's clothes, it seemed like the backpack had no bottom.

Argus agreed to drive us out to the rental shop, so we threw in my backpack, the food pack and Miranda's.

Kade and Miranda got in and took up half of the middle and back seats, another tough decision. I stood on the rim of the van, with my toes hanging off. Campers had gathered to watch us go. Most of the ones I knew were giving me thumbs-ups, and I even spotted one girl I didn't know blow me a kiss. With one last wave and one last breath of heavenly Camp air, I closed the door and scooted beside Kade. Looking back to Miranda, I was happy to see an understanding smile on her face.

I turned to Kade who had elbowed me.

"10 drachma's I kill more monsters than you before we reach Percy." I smiled; Kade knew I was too competitive to turn that down. I grasped his hand and shook it firm with an assuring,

"You're going down! "


	19. I use to be an Adventurer like you

**Chapter 19**

Miranda's POV

It was sad seeing Camp Half-Blood pass by out the window. I was a year round camper, same as my sister, and we had become really attached to this place. When I looked to see how the boys were coping, I found out they were already placing bets.

Gods boys sometimes, they couldn't feel emotion if they wanted to. I guess we had to stay confident we were going to get back, and Joey did look pretty sad before he got in the van.

I tilted my head to see around Joey (Gods he was tall!) to look at Argus. Most people shy away from him because they think he looks creepy. I guess eyes all over your arms and face don't help, and he doesn't talk to top it off, but he was actually pretty nice.

"Hey guys, I've been thinking." Kade said suddenly. "we really-"

_THUMP!_

Since I was looking ahead I saw a black form bounce of our windshield. Gods, you think at least one of Argus's 100 eyes would have seen it!

"We need to see what that was." Joey suggested and Kade nodded.

"Wait guys, I think-"I was cut off by the door slamming shut.

"Argus you should come out to. Argus? Argus!" I shook his shoulder when he didn't answer, and I realized he was fast asleep, as if my magic.

Oh gods.

I quickly grabbed my dagger belt and put it under my shirt and bolted outside.

"Took you long enough. I didn't want to wait but Joey made me." Kade said. I didn't answer. I simply put my hand on my daggers and slowly walked towards the black shape in the ditch.

"You boys need your weapons! Argus-"

"It's alright Miranda, it was probably just a deer or something, well be safe. There are three of us too." Joey assured.

We didn't arrive there together, Kade ran there, happy to be first. Getting closer, I couldn't see the form, but I could tell it was wearing a black wrap that covered her entire body. You could see the back of a head peek out from the top.

Kade quickly ran up and shook what he assumed to be the shoulder.

"Are you ok? We are so sorry! I-"Kade stopped talking when the person raised its head and the wrapping fell down. It was a beautiful woman of about 19. I mean beautiful! Gods, I'm a girl too; the boys would have fainted at the sight of her.

"I'm so sorry, clumsy me." She said in a perfectly seductive Italian accent. She continued, looking Kade straight in the eyes. "It was so brave of you to come to my rescue. It could have been dangerous." As she said this she slowly ran her fingers down Kade's arm, which was still holding her. The nerve! She is talking to the people that just hit her with a van!

"Can we help you Miss? Can you get up?" I said to try and break Kade out of his trance.

"I might need some help." She admitted, smiling at Kade. He wrapped his arms around her and helped her up. She stumbled, obviously faking injured. What was this girl's deal?

As her wrapping slid down she caught it quickly on her chest with a sly smile, "Sorry, I'm slightly... underdressed." She smiled slyly at both of the boys.

Oh. My. Gods.

If it was possible, the boys got stupider. The worst was Kade. He literally just stared at her full out, eyes wide as possible, drooling, neck forward. Joey wasn't as bad, but I still whacked him on the back of the head. He just rubbed it and stared at me, saying with his stare, _what was that for?_

"Could I trouble you for some water?"

"No you can't." I replied immediately, hands on my hips and as commanding as I could muster. This was to perfect. A beautiful girl doesn't walk around highways with just a wrapping on. Something was up. Meanwhile, the boys were fighting (nearly literally) to give her some water.

"Take mine!" Kade suggested.

"No take mine!" Joey countered.

"Boys please!" She pleaded, taking both. After downing both she admitted, "I'm actually here picking mushrooms, I need some sort of bag to carry them, do you-"but the boys had already darted to the van, grabbed ALL of our bags and put them at her feet. She was a charmspeaker! That was why they were in such a trance, or so I hoped for Joey's sake.

"We really need to go!" I explained, pulling on both of the boy's shoulders who were eagerly awaiting her next command.

"My my, is that ever a nice ring!" the woman complimented. She took hold of Joey's hand to inspect it and he blushed. "Could I take a closer look?"

Luckily, Joey's attachment to his oldest possession was to strong, even for the woman, so he slightly pulled out of the trance.

"I don't know." He answered and pulled his hand out of hers. "It's pretty old, I wouldn't want you to break it."

"Oh Olympus no, I wouldn't dare do that!" both of the boys stared at her. The sacred subject of Olympus was NEVER said out of Camp. Ever.

"What did you say?" Joey inquired demandingly, now completely out of the charmspeak.

"I said I must be going!" she finished in a voice that wasn't hers. She grabbed all of our stuff and threw it tall, over the trees, which took more strength then she appeared to have.

Her skin started to change, and bubble. Until finally, she still had the face of that of a beautiful woman, but her body was much different.

Her wrapping was discarded in her transformation, now lying on the ground. Underneath that, her body was half snake, a quarter dragon or something with a human face. Waist down, she had a huge snake tail, nearly as big as the snake Joey fought. Her midsection was scaly and had two long arms, with hands that had claws as long as daggers. To top it off, she had that same old head, but with two large horns sprouting from her hair and fangs as long as my index finger. In total, she was about 15 feet tall.

"Lamia!" I screamed. The boys looked at me as if I had a snake tail and horns, oh wait...

"Lamia loved Zeus, but Hera got mad and transformed her into a monster and killed her children."

"Correct, my dear" Lamia said in a voice even different from before. "That's what I get from your gods! You pesky kids will make great bait for even more demigods, but we don't need you alive, your friends must just thank you are!"

Lamia then caught herself revealing plans, and decided to kill us.

I was the only one prepared. I quickly pulled out two daggers and aimed but Lamia was quicker. She coiled up and readied herself to strike. Luckily Joey saw this and clicked his shield. When she struck at Kade, who still wasn't ready, he shouldered him out of the way and took the full force of her strike head on. When you think about it, with a 20 foot body the width of a tree trunk, that's LOTS of muscles. When all of those expand and use their full force at once, Joey must have felt like he got hit by a semi.

And it showed, it knocked him off his feet and a good 10 feet back. He landed on the hard asphalt with a dull _thump._

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. Looking, I realized it was Kade expanding his weapons. He had had them in his pocket all along.

Kade ran up to her and put his shield in front of his face. With Joey currently unavailable, we would have to buy some time.

Kade began a delicate dance with the Lamia. He defended himself while bouncing on his toes and hopping or rolling from side to side. Lamia would follow him and slither towards him. When she got to close he would jab his spear and she would shy away.

I waited, maybe a little too long, because she found the right time and sprung at Kade, blowing him back too. I had been waiting for this. I let fly both daggers at the same time. They hit her square in the chest, one in each shoulder. She writhed for a second. Seeing more movement I noticed Joey had got up. He ran towards her, wanting to take advantage of the moment of safety. I saw him hold out his hand, hoping to get some arrows. Pure and utter relief was dominant on his face when his bow appeared in his hand instead, as well as several arrows.

I was aiming for another dagger shot but she was still writhing in pain and to fast. Joey swiftly picked out a flashbomb arrow; aimed and smartly fired an arrow that went right into her forehead. She must have had a thick skull, because its head was barely in. The arrow exploded in a huge flash of light and knocked the woman back. She slithered back a few steps, barely regaining balance when Kade recovered, and threw his spear. He was aiming for her head, but he was a terrible shot. Luckily he put power behind it, because when it hit her in the stomach it was enough to make her lose her balance and fall back. I found my moment and threw a dagger which hit her in the head, but it was also a bad shot and hit her on the dull end.

Joey and Kade were closer, so they both ran up to her. Joey made sure she didn't move by holding a drawn arrow to her temple, and Kade finished her off with a spear to the eye.

After we retrieved our weapons, I slapped both of them across the cheek.

"What the-"they said simultaneously, holding the slap on their cheek.

"You were charmspoken!" I explained. At their inquisitive looks I offered," it's like hypnotised, some monsters can do it."

"One thing is for sure, when she was normal, she was hot!" Joey admitted. Out of instinct I gave him a death glare.

Joey's POV

"Why are you so protective around me!?" I burst out unexpectantly. I was tired of this. "I can't hardly look at a girl, were friends and your acting like we are married. Stop being such a buzzkill! I don't get it!" wait, what did I just say? I felt bad, Miranda's cheeks flushed scarlet and she ran back to the van, her face in her hands.

"Miranda no! I didn't mean that! I'm sorry!" I ran after her but Kade put a hand on my shoulder.

"Give her a sec, we have to get all of our stuff anyway." He explained. I nodded. He was right, we need our stuff and Miranda needed time.

"I hate fighting snakes, that the second in a row!" I said jokingly as we walked towards the bush.

"Why?" Kade asked, joining in.

"Because you can't give them an arrow to the knee!" I offered. Kade face palmed. "Oh c'mon! It wasn't that bad." I pleaded.

"I swear I will give YOU an arrow in your knee if you say that again." Kade joked.

The mood was pretty low, but that helped.


	20. Until I took an arrow to the knee

**Chapter 20**

**Holy Moley! Is it Chapter 20 already? I will celebrate by making the next couple chapters extra special, I promise! (On the river Styx of course.) Thanks a bunch to all my dedicated fans who have read this far! Enjoy!**

As Kade pulled a branch out of his way, he did the typical Kade thing to do and let it fly behind him, hitting me in the chest.

I'm surprised Kade could move it; because it was such a big branch it knocked me off my feet. That may have just been because I wasn't expecting it.

We were looking in the treetops for our bags. We had been at it a good ten minutes so I was starting to get neck cramps.

"There." I pointed finally. There were the other two of our bags; we had found the food one earlier. They were in trees of the same size, height, species, and both at relatively the same level.

Kade and I met eyes simultaneously.

"5 drachmas-"

"Deal!" I cut him off, shaking his offered hand. I quickly hooked my bow to my quiver strap, and put my foot on the first branch. We met eyes again and said at the same time, "Go!"

The trees were dry and strong, perfect for climbing. They were a species I had never seen before, I wasn't much of a treeaholic but my mom definitely was. I quickly developed a pattern. I would pull myself up with one hand and push off with the opposite foot, then find more branched and do the same with the others. I kept my gaze about a meter ahead, planning my route. Sparing a moment to look over my shoulder, I found Kade was at home, gods he moved like a spider monkey! I quickened my pace, ignoring the odd scratch or scrape. With one climatic jump, I grasped the handle of Miranda's backpack and looked over at Kade, who had looked over at me because he got his backpack at the same time.

"I got mine first!" I announced.

"Bull! I was moving twice your speed!" Kade spat back

"Fat chance! You were slow like you had concrete in your shoes!" this continued for about 3 minutes until we decided it would be a tie and nobody got the drachmas.

"Kade!" I exclaimed, I remembered something on our walk back.

"I am 67% sure that's my name." He joked

"What were you going to say when you were cut off by us hitting Lamia?"

"Oh that!" Kade remembered too, seemed like hours ago but it was probably only 40 minutes or so. "Well, it was kind of a spur of the moment joke. I was going to suggest we put all our names together in a team name."

"Hmm... Miradey?" I suggested.

"I like Jadeanda better." Kade commented.

"We'll let Miranda choose." I said just to say something; sadly it reminded me of my jerk outburst. I had thought about it lots on the way here and had decided on things. First of all, Miranda was only looking out for me, she had been here for years, and I had been at camp for what, two weeks? I was acting like I was invincible and ignoring her warnings; no wonder many demigods don't live long lives. I bet lots of demigods had to die to establish warnings for different people. Don't call Draknae Mr. by accident; don't try to pet hellhounds, etc.

Kade read the look on my face.

"Just apologize and don't mention it again." He instructed.

"I acted like an absolute jerkface! Can you please go there for me and settle her down? I don't think she will be very happy to see me." I explained my views on her reasons and Kade agreed.

"I'll do it, but you don't owe me." Knowing there was more, I asked,

"Why not?"

"Because you actually beat me by a longshot on the backpacks, I'm taking back you reward as a fee." My eyes widened. I just made some random hand motions and stuttered out some ineligible sentences, but I accepted. We could finally see the road and the van, it's a good thing Kade led me because I could get lost in a Wal-Mart; I have no sense of direction.

"I'll stay here with the bags, you go talk to here." I offered. He nodded his head and threw me our shared bag which I caught.

Kade's POV

I slowly walked towards the van, passing in front to make sure she knew I was coming. From experience I knew how to handle distressed women. (If you were wondering, like a cornered rattlesnake! Don't do anything to agitate it, always give an escape route, and finally be calm and gentle.)

I pulled open the door and shuffled on to the middle left seat, she was in the right. Closing the door behind me, I asked,

"How you holding up?"

"Terrible, how could I be so stupid Kade! I've lost just so much, I-I just didn't want to lose Joey li-like so many others fiends." Miranda said, lightly sobbing, remembering the other friends I guessed. Looking at her when she turned her face, I realized she had cried a little bit, but not bawled. She wore no makeup so there was none to run.

"Hey," I started; awkwardly putting a hand on her shoulder, but it seemed to help. "Don't blame yourself for this, Joey needs you."Miranda's head popped up from her hands with raised eyebrows.

"He needs me?" she asked.

"Of course he does, and I need you too! Joey and I are just a coupe stupid young teenagers who are going to get ourselves killed sooner or later. We need the leader of the quest to keep her chin up." I explained.

"Leader of the quest?" she asked, apparently she liked the sound of that. "I always thought Joey-"

"No way, you've got years of experience on us, there's no chance we could do it without you. Where would we be if it weren't for you? In a Lamia's stomach that's where." Miranda slightly chuckled at this.

"Does Joey, not like me? Because of how I acted? Does he still-"she tried to say

"You're kidding right? You think Joey would reject you?" I said amazed. "He'd be lucky to have you! Joey is a 14 year old geek who still plays Lego's, is afraid of grasshoppers and cried at the end of Marley and Me." I explained. Miranda burst out laughing.

"Don't repeat that, ever!" I joked.

"Kade Jamieson!" she said suddenly, hitting me lightly on the arm. Who knew you had a soft side!" she was feeling a little better. I assumed.

"Shhh!" I joked, putting a finger on my lips. "Someone might hear!"

"Joey is in the woods, he's been waiting for us and he's monumentally sorry." Before she could answer I cleared my throat and did my best Joey imitation- _I acted like an absolute jerkface! I don't think she will be very happy to see me._ _Miranda was only looking out for me, she had been here for years, and I had been at camp for what, two weeks._

Miranda smiled at this, looking down modestly.

"Bring him in." she stated simply

Joey's POV

Kade took a long time. I tried to pass by the hours desperately on my little log I sat on. I polished Viper until I couldn't look at it because it was so bright, I counted my arrows 4 times, and I even inspected my shield for about 10 minutes, inspecting it for dents. Surprisingly there was none, this was amazing because when the Lamia hit me it felt like I got hit by a wrecking ball. Finally, I resorted to twiddling my thumbs. Although my stomach rumbled twice, I was in no mood to eat, so I resorted to nibbling the edges of a strip of beef jerky.

I thought about lots of stuff. I thought about Mom, how she might be doing. I thought about Jason, how he had amazingly hid his identity from me all our lives, and I even tries to think about dad. I dug furiously for any remaining strand of memory of Apollo, but there was none. After a long dig I had found rock bottom. Remembering Chiron's advice, I pulled the prophecy paper and desperately tried to unravel its secrets, but nothing came.

With an exhausted sigh I stuffed it in my pocket, hurry up Kade! As if on cue Kade walked into my clearing and asked,

"Miss me?"

"Took you long enough! What's up?"

"Um, I think she's ok to see you, I'll warn you what you said really struck home, so tread carefully." I nodded and thanked him for his advice. I then sprung off my log and towards the van, happy to be free again.

Miranda ran out to meet me. When I started my apology, she just kept running and ran into me with a huge hug. I pushed my face into her shoulder, and began again,

"I'm sorry, I was such a jerk, you were doing your best to keep me alive and I rejected that. I-"

"No Joey, I'm sorry." She cut me off, pulling away but keeping her hands out my shoulders. I was going overboard, telling you what to do, how to do it and how to live your life."

"No you weren't, I-"

"Enough with the apologies! Let's just skip to the forgiveness and to the quest!" I nodded in agreement and hopped in the van, inside Argus was groggily waking up.

**Ok, maybe Miranda didn't do all those things, but can we pretend? Review and let me know what you guys think!**


	21. Kade plus Arimaspi

**Chapter 21**

**Joey POV**

As we pulled in to New York, Miranda cou ldn't help but point out the sites of th e Battle of Manhattan, during the Second Titan War.

"My cabin defended that bridge! Remind m e to tell you about it later! Ohh Percy fought Hyperion there! See that tree? T h at's actually a Titan!" after the last o ne I looked into the back seat with a ra ised eyebrow.

"Never mind." She simply responded, her face still glued to the window. As we pu lled into the car rental place, I decid e d I had never seen so many cars in my li fe. Hyundais, Nissans, Toyotas, Dodge s, Fords, Jeeps, the list was endless! T he entire place took up an entire lot.

We pulled alongside the large management building and Argus dropped us off, afte r a short goodbye, we took our bags and he pulled out, heading back to camp.

The building itself was actually quite i mpressive. It was two stories, of offic e s, there had t be at least 20 in all. Th e building was also cut in half to ma ke a large-ceilinged showroom to show of th e more expensive cars.

We stood in the doorway of the showroom, still taking in the place.

"Can I help you?" a Russian accent asked to our right. I turned and saw him; he was at least 6' 5 and full of muscle. Wh en he spoke he revealed a mouth of stron g-looking teeth.

"Yes, we were looking for a suitable veh icle." Miranda said with surprising conf idence.

"Aren't you a bit young?"The man-mountai n asked unwaveringly. To my surprise, Mi randa pulled ID out of her bag and showe d it to him. When he told us to follow h im and turned his back, Miranda whispere d to me, "Had one made for the quest." I smiled and gave her a _Nice! _look and followed him to the back.

Amazingly, we were the only customers. T his just made things way more awkward be cause all of the employees just stared a t us. It seemed like they only hired men that were over 200 pounds of muscle, I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.

The large man led us to one of the offic es and we sat down in wooden chairs. You think if they could afford these cars t hey could afford some more comfortable c hairs, honestly. He just made us fill ou t lots of paperwork, which Mirada took c are of. He made me nervous though, he wo uldn't stop staring at Aren, and when he did look away, he eyed Kade's bracelet. 

I nudged Kade's foot carefully under the table and he looked at me.

I looked at the man, Aren, and then Kade 's bracelet, then a questioning face. I was portraying the message,

_This Guy is looking at our weapons, do y ou think he knows? _Kade shook his eyes left and right (an a ge old thing we had come up with, it mea nt a shake of the head.), gave me a ques tion look, then look towards the door an d ever so slightly indicated it with his head, saying:

_No, how would he? But let's get out of h ere anyway._ I did the eye-nod then looked back at t he man, who was focused on Miranda and l uckily hadn't seen our silent conversati on. Surprisingly, he didn't write down a nything about us, he just took a picture of Miranda's ID with an old fashion cam era.

"Yes, it is old fashioned but it is effe ctive." Miranda smiled at him and starte d a conversation about her grandma's old camera. I was focused on the man when h is face wavered. Yes, it actually flicke red like you were watching TV when it wa s raining badly. For a moment he had one single eye, in the middle of his forehe ad. For a split second I had a flashback of Jayden. I gasped and shook my head, maybe a little too prominent, everyone w as looking at me. I decided on a plan of action quickly.

"Rob, Kelsey can handle herself, let's g o take a look around." i suggested, usin g the name off Miranda's fake ID.

"I could-"the Russian Cyclops began to o ffer.

"No we are fine."

"I must-"

"Trust me, we are fine." I said, quite a bit too demandingly. "Miranda, you know I love Fords, would you please go throu gh every model available and compare the m accurately?" she began to protest but I shot her a look, she understood she ne eded to stall him.

Kade and I walked outside, on the bottom floor the hallway was a U, the two ends leading to the showroom. With all the e mployees in the showroom, I decided the hallway would be the safest to talk. Aft er doubling back several times to make s ure there weren't any eavesdroppers, I b egan.

"They're monsters." I said bluntly

"Really?"

"All of them, when we doubled back I che cked and they are all monsters."

"I almost felt bad at first, taking the car, even though technically North Ameri ca may be destroyed if we failed, I have no pro blem now." I got an idea.

"Hey, Hermes is the god of thieves, righ t? Lets wreck havoc!" I suggested, to wh ich Kade agreed with an eager nod.

+.+.+.+

I had to force myself to trust Miranda, because this would take complete concent ration.

"No security guards." I whispered to Kad e as we approached the front desk, not l ike they needed them anyway, all these g uys made Hulk Hogan look like a twig.

"Security cameras, two, trajectories cen tered on the desk, blind spot there, the re, and there." He looked at them while he was talking and waited so I could fol low his eyes. After much longer than it took Kade, I realized he was right.

"Swann Digital Wireless, SW322-YDX model ." Where did that come from? But he con t nued, "Low resolution, a good fog or s auce should take them out." As we neared even closer to the desk, which was at t he bottom of the U, Kade stole a pencil from the desk with a swipe, they didn't notice. He threw it up and it hit the pa neling and stuck, while the monsters at the desk looked, he shoved several packe ts of soemthing into my hand. Playing al ong, I complained,

"Rob! You are so immature! I hope you do n't mind if I borrow this chair." I stol e a chair and acted like I needed it to get the pencil. I made a big deal of rea ching for it, but while I was up there I took the ketchup packet and smeared it on the cameras, sure to get everywhere. I chuckled softly to myself, why was Kad e carrying ketchup? We repeated the skit again, but while I was taking out the o ther camera, I looked over my shoulder. I shouldn't have because it was very har d to stifle my laugh. Kade was hitting o n the two men at the desk, and they beli eved he was gay! Kade must have taken ac ting lessons, because he was the human p ersonification of Quagmire from Family G uy, very far from gay. He made a big dea l out of complimenting them and feeling their muscles. Even more amazing, they l iked it. Even though they were a good 10 years older than him, they were flirtin g back.

"Rob, Kelsey texted me, she is going to be awhile." I said even though I didn't have a cell phone.

"I guess we have more time then." He sai d flirtatiously to the man at the desk. We exchanged a quick conversation with f ces and our eyes.

_You need to carry out the plan._

_What? You do it! I suck!_

_I can't go, I have too much of their att ention._

All that practicing worked off, because they didn't notice even though their eye s didn't leave Kade. Completely improvis ing from now on, I layed an elbow on the ir desk but "accidentally" knocked off t he pencil holder. One of them went to ge t it but I offered to.

He must have really liked Kade because h e didn't mind. I crept behind the desk.

"Here you go, oh, one rolled way back he re." I went to go get the imaginary penc il. There were actually some rooms back here, so I went quietly until I found th e key room. After deciding for as long a s I dared, I stole three sets of keys.

When I came back into Kade's view I shov ed my fist into my mouth to hold the lau gh, he offered them a neck massage. He r eached over the desk and grabbed both of their necks, which they eagerly held fo rward, all the while I was creeping clos er to the desk.

"And then there is this little trick, I learned it from a chiropractic course I took." Kade lied, he pushed on their nec ks in a place, and their heads fell forw ard lazily on the desk. He shot me a des perate look and mouthed,

_Ten Seconds!_

I rapidly ran up to the desk, popped ope n the cash drawer, which was unlocked; I could barely grab a handful of each pil e and stuff them into the front pocket o f my backpack quick enough. I penguin di ved over the desk and barely stood up wi th a smile when they lifted their heads. 

"That was amazing, I felt like-"

"Great but we have to go!"

We both ran out of earshot when I asked, 

"What the Hades was that!"

"It never happened and your welcome." Ka de answered simply.

We burst into the room and I quickly sai d,"Kelsey, Aunt Gertrude got hit by a mo ving truck carrying oranges!"

"Oh my gosh, we have to go!" she burst o ut,

"And thank you for your help!" Miranda, to my great surprise, reached over and h ugged him. A pang of jealousy hit me, bu t it left when I realized she was grabbi ng her fake ID from cabinet behind him. She shoved it in her pocket and we left. 

Running out the front door, I jingled th e keys at her and Kade showed her the st ack of money. I could tell by the look o n her face she was surprised. I started looking for the cars matching the keys I stole.

"You guys are awesome, but how did you d o it?"

"Kade-"

"Didn't do anything, Joey did amazing." Kade cut me off. Luckily Miranda just th ought he was being humble.

"Kade, Mustang, there!" I threw the keys in the air and he caught them, when he reached his vehicle he did a hood bum-sl ide and happily got in the car, he pulle d up beside us.

"Miranda, Viper or Corvette?" she answer ed by grabbing the Corvette keys and goi ng to find her car. I always liked Viper s anyway. As we pulled our cars beside e ach other, I told them the plan. Althoug h they wanted the cars for longer, they reluctantly agreed.

+.+.+.+

Kade's POV

I was a little worried driving at first, but the Mustang handled like a dream.

For a memento, we had gotten a man to ta ke a picture of all three of us in the c ab of the Viper, but after that we went straight to the middle-class part of New -York.

After we decided on a house, we left Mir anda to guard the cars and me and Kade k nocked on the door. When no one answered , we decided it was important enough to barge in.

I was surprised to walk in to an argumen t between a couple.

"We don't have the money to buy food; I' ve been working three jobs for heaven's sake!" the wife said.

"Honey, we need to sell the house- wait, who are you?" the man suddenly saw us. Joey threw him the keys., He caught them and looked at them in his hands with as tonishment.

"Th-these are keys-"

"To a brand new Corvette, sell it and ke ep the house. This is not a joke, we are just Good Samaritans. No credit cards, nothing, all we ask for payment is that you pass it on." I said, finishing with what my step-dad had often told me. Out of nowhere the man hugged Joey and said; 

"Thank you, thank you so much, you have no idea what this means to me! What this means to us." Joey awkwardly patted him on the back. His wife and he had both s tarted crying.

"We were going to go on the street, but you saved us! Are you angels?" the wife asked.

"Not angels, just people. I hope this sh ows you what we as a species are capable of." I explained. To my great surprise, I started tearing up a bit out of happi ness.

After a lot of thank you's, I left with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes. We repeated that again with another fam ily in financial trouble.

When we were done, I hopped into the bac kseat of the Viper happily.

As Joey got in the passenger seat, I set tled down, put my feet up and put my han ds behind my neck, using them as pillows .

"I'm proud of you guys, that was a very kind thing to do." Miranda sated as she started the Viper.

"The more we can trouble monsters and th e more we can help people, the happier I am." Joey admitted

"I don't know." Joey said.

"What Joey?" I asked.

He held up his polished sword and admitt ed,

"I don't know which Viper I like better! " It was a terrible joke but we were in incredibly high spirits, so we burst out laughing.

+.+.+.+

The New York (state) countryside flashed by from my comfortable position, I deci ded I liked it better than Pennsylvania, which we had seen an hour ago. Miranda was actually a really good driver; we we re already approaching the city of Cortl and.

"Oranges?" Miranda asked all of a sudden .

"What?" Me and Joey said simultaneously. 

"Why did 'Aunt Gertrude', weird name by the way, have to get hit by a truck full of Oranges?" I laughed from the backsea t as I remembered this.

"I'm sorry! I panicked, I suck at improv ising!" Joey admitted, holding his heads in his hands jokingly.

"And why did I have to be named after ou r history teacher, you couldn't come up with one thasts more creative?" I offere d

"Same concept!" Joey explained.

"You suck at sneaking around by the way, I heard every step loud and clear" I ad ded.

"Maybe you should have done it, oh wait! You were too busy coming out of the clo set!" Joey said. I shot him the biggest death glare I have ever done. Miranda le t out a loud "ha!" and said,

"Care to explain Joey?" Joey explained t he situation and Miranda burst out laugh ing.

"How did you know they were gay?" Joey a sked.

"They both had rainbow tattoo's on their arms, I took a risk." I explained, extr emely embarrassed.

"Why didn't they think they were pettifi les?" Miranda was next in line.

"I convinced them I was in college-"

"Taking a chiropractic course!" Joey cut me off. Joey and Miranda burst out laug hing. At first I felt like hitting Joey, but I decided not to darken the mood so I joined in.

"Well either way, thank you. It took lot s of courage to hit on a Cyclops!" Joey admitted.

"Arimaspi." Miranda corrected. At our lo oks she continued, "They weren't Cyclops , they were Arimaspi. A tribe of Men fr om the north of Greece."

"How did you know them? And the Lamia to o!" I asked

"Years of Monster class will do that." T hat made sense.

"Next stop, Niagra Falls!." I announced. 

Right there, joking in the cab of a Vipe r, was a memory that I held on to for th e remainder of the quest, and it definet ly helped get through the hard times tha t were on the way.

**There you go! Longest chapter yet! Was i awesome or what!?**


	22. Fluff at the Falls

**Chapter 22**

**Alright guys, this chapter is perfect. There's some laid back time, then there's some action, then throw some mild romance in it and you've got Chapter 22!**

Joey's POV

Since we decided I was the best at math, I quickly counted the cash.

_100 times 4, plus 50 times 6, plus approximately 80 dollars in 5's and 10's equals;_

"800 dollars!" I announced. Miranda whooped like monkey and Kade let out a long whistle. Kade's whistle was cut off halfway by a _ding _that came from the dash.

"Low gas." Miranda announced, looking down at the dials. Kade pointed from the backseat.

"Gas station, I'm starving!" we all hadn't eaten since camp so we decided to grab something to eat.

Miranda filled up the Viper while we grabbed something inside. The gas station was bigger on the inside than it seemed on the outside. There were several isles of items, varying from food to oil and washer fluid. We each grabbed one hundred bucks and went crazy. My family was never rich, but not poor, so I had never had this feeling. Trust me, to walk into a store and know that you can buy as much as you want with a bad persons money is a great feeling.

I sped down the Drinks isle; opened up a cooler and grabbing two six-packs of Mountain Dew. I stacked both of them on one arm as sped down the chocolate bar isle, helping myself to handfuls of Twix and Reese Pieces. I saw Kade at the beef jerky so I skipped that isle, I grabbed a couple magazines on my way by, deciding on _Seventeen_ for Miranda, _Safes and Locks Monthly_ for Kade and _Archery America _for me. I decide we wouldn't be able to carry all this, so I also took a backpack with the American flag all over it. I planted it all on the counter with a loud _thunk! Kade came up beside me with an equally impressive pile._

The cashier was a middle-aged woman who could hardly believe her eyes. What would you expect when you put two hungry teenagers in a store with 200 bucks? The pile was quite large, filled with drinks, beef jerky, chocolate bars, chip, subs and more.

"$106.89" the cashier announced shakily. I happily paid with the stolen money. Kade held out his arms and I strategically stacked him, leaving only bags I could grab myself. Kade pushed open the door with his back and I held it open with my foot, but not my back because I had the backpack on.

As we approached the now full Viper, Miranda was leaning against the driver door. Her only response when she saw us was she covered her eyes with one hand and shook her head.

"We will be broke if you keep this up!" she complained jokingly.

"I know, I know, but we deserve a feast! Kade explained and she had to agree.

"It took you guys long enough, 4 guys flirted with me while I was waiting!" Miranda explained as she got in the driver's seat. What guy does like a pretty girl with a nice car?

"Poor poor pitiful Miranda, how could we leave you so helpless?" Kade joked as he loaded the food. Kade had agreed to keep it all with him in the back, probably so he had it close at hand.

I let Kade get in first then I hopped in the passenger seat.

"Mountain Dew please." I asked, reaching my hand back. Kade handed one to me and cracked done for himself, putting his feet up in comfort.

"What do we have to eat?" Miranda inquired. Kade shifted through the bags.

"Chips, bars, beef jerky, subs, and to drink we have Powerade, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, 7-up, and Pepsi. "She placed her order and Kade handed her a Reese Pieces and a blue Powerade.

+.+.+.+

_Niagara Falls 22 miles_

"Niagara Falls!" Miranda announced happily. She stuck her head out the window and yelled. We had switched seats to give her a break, so I was driving.

We were still about 10 minutes from the South Grand Island Bridge, for Kade's sake we didn't take the Niagara Thruway which followed the river all along the way. Still, Kade was on alert with his hand never leaving his coin.

"So, do you think there are demigods in Canada?" Kade asked, since we could almost see over the border.

"I guess so, I don't see why not." Miranda said after thinking for a second.

"Well, as far as I know there's isn't any Canadians at Camp, where do they go?" I asked, munching down on a Twix. Miranda was taken by surprise again, so she had no answer.

"I wonder if Canadians actually ride dogsleds, cut down trees and wear plaid shirts." Kade pondered, flipping through _Safes and Locks Monthly_, "What if Canadians are actually normal, and we are just ignorant?" We all waited a couple of seconds, then burst out laughing all at the same time.

"Ya, you guys are probably right." Kade said between chuckles. Suddenly Kade shoved his head deep into his magazine and lowered his head, we were on Grand Island Bridge.

"I'm surprised we haven't been pulled over more, considering were teenagers."

WEEEOOO WEEEOOO WEEOOO.

"Speak of the Devil." I joked, even though it wasn't the time I couldn't resist.

Kade cursed in ancient Greek.

"What's our plan?" I said, turning to Miranda.

"Ummm, Ughhh, oh!" An idea struck her. She explained it to us, it was a longshot but we had to do with what we had.

"Alright," the officer leaned into the window." where's the fire- wait, you guys are kids!" The officer realized.

"It's alright, I'm 16." Miranda handed over her fake ID. The officer took it, and bent it, smelled it, inspected it and several other things that didn't make sense.

"Yup, it's fake." He ripped it in have to the horror of Miranda. "You'll have to come with me."

"Sir! We are driving to the hospital!" I said, getting out of the car. Kade hobbled out, holding on to his leg.

"Oh my-"The cop trailed off with wide eyes. I had stitched Kade up real good, he had three of Miranda's daggers sticking out of his leg, or at least that's what the cop thought. I had really just slipped them through many layers of gauze with lots of ketchup packets from our subs. He looked like he had run into some angry ninja's or something.

_Thunk._ The cop' body hit the ground as he fainted. We all ran into the Viper again but Kade tripped over the cop.

"Ahh!" he cried in pain, the daggers had pierced his flesh. I tried to run out to him but he waved me off and hopped inside.

"It's alright, only a scratch, plus it's in gauze." Kade explained. I nodded, then turned to Miranda.

"Um, we have been cutting it pretty close with the past events." I explained "we have about an hour, tops, is that ok?"

"That'll be plenty."

+.+.+.+

Miranda's POV

Niagara Falls was amazing, until the inbred came.

Back up, we were at Goat Island, on the little balcony made to see the falls. It was insane; we could hardly hear each other over the reverberation of the water, an endless river of uninterrupted power. A-

"..." Joey said something but i didnt her. Only something like the falls could take my eyes off Joey, the mist from the falls glistened his skin, he was wearing a purple v-neck which surprisingly suited him well, jeans, and his hair started to fall in curls because of the mist, almost reaching his eyes.

"What?!"

"Do you see that?" I followed his pointed finger to find a man in deep brown robes walking with a purpose, right towards us.

Joeys POV

Miranda pulled me close by my shirt and rested her chin on my shoulder by my ear, even though I would hear her anyway. I stiffened, this being an awkward moment. I often thought about Miranda, and I thought even more when Kade bugged me about it. Should I date her? We had known each other for awhile, and we had gotten real close on the quest.

"Nobody wears those clothes in public, let's skedaddle, we've been here long enough." I nodded, and then tapped Kade's shoulder, giving him a thumb-over-the-shoulder _get out_ signal.

I couldn't help but stare at Miranda out of the corner of my eye before we left. The spray from the falls had given her olive skin a shiny coat; her high cheekbones and green eyes looked all the better. Her flowing blonde hair was similarly shiny, now in a ponytail down her back. She wore a light gray t-shirt and jean short shorts. Miranda was a pretty girl, she was one of the prettiest girls in camp in my opinion, and she was definelty the prettiest single one. I was actually really luck we had gotten close, I bet-wait- ugh! All of my thoughts swirled back to Miranda somehow recently, I didn't know why but I have never felt it before. I pushed it all into the back of the mind, and went to take a step.

My step stopped early, as if I had stepped on an invisible stool, except my entire body was frozen in place. There was no room to move, I was in no longer in control of my body. Images of Stheno flashed through my brain before I was thrown across the concrete. I skidded across it for several feet, bruising and cutting open skin. I looked up and found Kade and Miranda were thrown likewise, all at angles away from us. I tried to get up again but I found I was frozen, darn it.

"Well well, look at the camp cowards. I'm surprise you pathetic excuse for half-gods let go of the apron strings." We were forced to listen to this voice, we couldn't look at it, we couldnt even blink, my eyes got so dry they hurt.

"The master will be pleased, more sacrifices." I struggled with all my might against his bonds.

"Who am I you might think? I am part of the most powerful demigods in the world. We are only the first, there will be many more to take your place once you are all dead." I gasped as he released us for a quick breather. I clenched my eyes shut in a desperate attempt to water them.

"How...-"I began with a gasp.

"How you might ask?" gods this guy was weird "I am a son, grandson, and great grandson of Hecate." That means... ewwww!

"I am the most powerful magician in the world, I am 7/8th god! Only ten percent of my blood is mortal!"

"Actually, more than that." Kade piped in. " your about 87.5%."the man, which I could now see, let out a angered breath.

"It doesn't matter; I have the strength of tenfold you half-bloods!"

"Well, yes it does, you can still be hurt by-"

"Shut up! Surrender you weapons to me or die!"

"Well that's just plain melodramatic." Miranda stated, flipping onto her feet and reaching for daggers.

"Tenfold demigods, eh?" I asked as I ran around his flank, summoning Aren and Viper. "I think threefold should be enough." The tourists had just started to notice us, but only some were walking away with mutters.

Kade flipped his spear and charged straight in from of him, then reared back to hurl his spear. The man stopped him by slamming into the ground with his hands, this summoned huge pillars of rock, one of which appeared in front of Kade, knocking him flat on his back. Amazingly, it un-summoned his weapons and the person pulled them into his hand wiht magic.

Miranda started hurling daggers but another ground-palm and a 6 inch rock wall blocked all of them, it even moved when she did. Kade, angry from losing his cool toys, blindly charged him with only his fists. Gods, Kade sometimes! I caught up to him,

"Kade!" When he looked I handed him Viper and after a short hesitation, Aren. Kade renewed his flight towards him and I summoned Shiner and a flashbomb arrow, raising it to my eye. With a swipe of his hand, Kade went flying backwards head over heels. Before he could do the same to me, I drew back to full extent and fired it, aiming for the head, which he grabbed out of the air

"What the-"I was interrupted by him sending it back to me.

"I am Thrain of Thasos, feel my wrath!" These flashbomb arrows were awesome, but not when they are used on you. The arrow itself stuck into my arm, which hurt on its own. It exploded and sent me flipping and turning, fireworks danced in my eyesight as I flew backwards. I rolled and bumped myself into a fencepost, sending me into a daze.

"I summon the gale winds, bend at whim!" Thrain called out. Suddenly a great crackle filled my ears, like someone cranked Rice Crispies's volume up to 11. Through the bright spots, I caught a glance of wayward blonde hair fly, followed by a scream and a static smell.

"Joey!" Miranda desperately called out to me. I shook out of my daze to find Thrain zapping her Sith Lord style, she screamed and curled, her body moving in great spasms. Time slowed nearly to a halt, the lightning slowly came from his hands and Niagara even slowed. I bolted to where Kade laid unconscious, smartly taking a sharp corner and grabbing Viper and Aren.

Thrain was too busy torturing my friend to notice me. I focused my eyes on him, huge arcs of lightning pounded into Miranda's frame.

"Joey!" Miranda cried again, desperately grabbing a fence post to help hold down the spasms. As I reached him, I held back my arm, ready to take off his head in a single stroke. But when I swung, it bounced off his skin as if made of steel. I quickly tucked behind his shield, preparing for the coming voltage, hoping he would stop hurting Miranda and give me a turn instead, but none came. Well, at least none reached me. My shield had created a glowing apparition of a bigger shield on itself. It had the same weight as Aren, but its solid form was that of a 4 foot wide Spartan shield. I reared back and slammed the rim of my shield into his ribs, surprisingly knocking him back and making a _crack_ noise. When he came closer, I swung at him wiht Viper, again to no avail. I dropped Viper and put two arms behind my shield, then threw my entire weight at him, successfully knocking him of his feet. I ran up to him and placed the rim of Aren at his throat threateningly.

"Kade!" I called but he was already there.

"Next time, let me finish talking." Kade announced dramatically, and placed the tip of a police handgun at his temple.

"No! I beg you! I'll give you anything! I can-"I turned away helplessly as Kade executed him.

_Kade didn't trip at the bridge, he did that to cover up his theft, he knew I didn't like him stealing from mortals._

After I stuffed Aren in my jean pocket, I scurried over to Miranda's motionless body. Kneeling down, I held her back up with my right arm, shaking her with my left.

"Miranda, Miranda please... please." I begged. I felt her pulse, it was weak. Being a son of Apollo, I immediately knew she needed a defibrillator, it was a longshot... I summoned Aren in normal form and held it above her chest.

If it absorbed all that lightning then maybe-

_Crack!_

Miranda jolted up and her breath quickened, she looked around desperately until her eyes landed on me.

"Oh Joey..." she threw herself at me and held me tight. On a normal day, it was definelty awkwardly tight, like hardly-breathe-feel-their-body-on-your-chest mega awkward, but today I dint mind. I just held her back as she cried into my shoulder. I picked her up in my arms and walked over to the Viper, her clutching me for her life the entire time.

"Throw that gun away." I ordered toward Kade, who was getting in the backseat.

"But-"I gave him a death stare until he reluctantly hurled it into the falls.

"And don't ever steal from an innocent." I added, settling into the backseat to look after Miranda, silently telling Kade to drive. I laid her across the backseat, giving her my sweater as a pillow on the door.

Her eyes flashed open one last time.

"Joey, I-" she sat up and looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"Shhh, rest." I interrupted, slowly laying Miranda back down. She shuffled slightly then went to sleep. Kade was pulling out of Buffalo when I followed her example.


	23. Missouri?

**Chapter 23**

**Warning, this chapter is fluff. If you don't want to read it, the only useful piece on info is that Kade drove them to Missouri.**

**Joey's POV**

I pulled myself out of sleep, I slept like a rock. Seriously, I felt like my body turned off. I guess in those fights, you fight way better than a regular person, but you use all your energy. I can't imagine during the titan war with constant fighting.

I was awake, but I didn't move, Miranda must have thought I was though. She wasn't comfortable so she opened her eyes, turned around, and rested her head on my lap. It was awkward (as usual) but again, I didn't mind. I sat there for a long time, half asleep, thinking. I mostly thought of Miranda, but I thought back to Camp. Were they okay? What was going to happen in the desert? Where were Percy, Annabeth and Nico? What was going down in San Francisco? So many questions, but one thought rose above even those. Miranda.

I decided I had fought it long enough; I needed to come to terms with these feelings. Yeah, I'm not stupid, I realize I like Miranda, but who wouldn't? She was awesome. She was smart, clever, and quick on her feet, literally. She could bring a smile to anyone's face, but above all, I enjoyed spending time with her. She and I could just talk, about anything in particular, for hours. I squinted opened my eyes and looked at Miranda for awhile, yeah it was probably creepy but I couldn't help myself. I didn't stare at her like a pervert or creepily, or anything like that. I thought back, I hated awkward moments, little body contact things, but Miranda was fine with them. She rested her chin on my shoulder at the falls, at the archery range she had grabbed my hand, and she was lying on my lap now completely fine. That probably doesn't seem like much to you, but for me it's huge. It means she's completely comfortable around me, no apprehension. That means she at least thinks of me as a good friend, right? Ugh! This was so frustrating! I tried to focus on other things, so I turned my attention to Kade.

"Kade... Where are we?" I sat groggily without moving.

"Missouri." Kade spurted out quickly.

"Wha- Missouri?" I exclaimed. I checked the clock on the dash. "Kade, you've driven for 12 hours straight!"

"I know." He spurted out. I noticed his movements were quick and jerky.

"Well, how?" I asked.

"Two words dude, Red Bull. I have drunk so many of them! They're awesome!" he managed to get all that out in about a second and a half. He looked back and met my eyes. His were very red, and his face was wrinkled around the eye, as if he hadn't blinked in hours.

"Alright, pull over, I'm driving." I ordered. Miranda's head rolled on my lap, so I returned my back to my seat so I wouldn't wake her.

"No way man! This is just like Need for Speed! Carbon to be specific! That's my favorite one by far!"He sputtered in about 3 seconds. He swerved and nearly hit the ditch, I wondered how many he had until I looked in the passenger seat. The foot area was filled so full with cans they had started to pile onto the seat.

"Kade, pull over now." Kade sighed and pulled over.

_Alright Joey, here's a test. Where do you shake her to wake her?_ I decided on something a little different. I brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She slowly woke up from her deep sleep.

"Good morning." I said with a smile.

**Miranda's POV**

_Ugh, sleep feels so good._

_I wish I could be like this forever!_

_Ahh, Joey's thigh is surprisingly comfortable._

_Wait, what? Something was pulling me form this heaven, drawing me to the real world like a fish on a hook._

I felt a hand on my face; it pushed a bang behind my ear. I slowly opened my eyes, taking as long as possible to adjust to the terrible sunlight.

"Good morning." Joey stated, his tone was smooth and seducing, it flowed perfectly like chocolate.

I sat up, I expected him to be much different since I was sleeping on his lap. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I raised an eyebrow as I got up and saw the dash clock. Joey noticed and chuckled,

"Ok, maybe I'm a little late." He joked. I turned my body and sat in the middle seat while Kade was looking for a pace to pull over.

"Joey," I started then trailed off, I thought he would expect an awkward conversation an escape from it, but he didn't. "Thank you. Thanks for everything."

"Like-um, saving you-a couple times... in battle-?" he rubbed the back of his neck, representing his nervousness. Gods he looked just like the first time I met him.

"_And then I said to the farmer, that's not a screwdriver, that's my sandwich!" Katie explained and we all burst out in laughter._

"_Hey Miranda." Brandy called over._

"_Yeeees." I said jokingly, looking at her above my sunglasses._

"_Cutie, 5 o'clock, he's the new kid." I rolled my eyes at her, she noticed. "Oh c'mon! At least talk to him! You're the only single girl in our cabin." That's true_

"_If you don't act quickly, I'll bet any money girls are on him by the end of the week." Definitely true also, all the good guys were scooped up and it wouldn't be long for this one to follow their example._

"_Alright, I'll think about it." I relented, all the girls shrieked. _

"_Ok here's another, there was a toilet repairman and an orangutan..." Katie started but I wasn't paying attention, I was sneaking a look at this guy, he was smirking at some other girl who was checking him out._

_Damn, he must be a farm boy because he had abs. He looked amazing sitting there in the sun, tan skin, a beautiful smile, and he had perfect hair, I loved how he did it up. He got up and walked and I realized how tall he was. He was at least 5' 10! He looked over at me from Annabeth's pointed finger and caught me staring. EEEP! I quickly turned around and pretended to be enthralled in Katie's joke, and then I realized I was wearing sunglasses, gosh I'm stupid. Katie elbowed me in the middle of her joke then raised her eyebrows in the boy's direction._

"_He's coming over here, and he's headed for you." She pointed out_

"_Shut up." I breathed through my teeth with a huge blush, so of course everyone laughed and Katie continued her joke._

"_And then he said, No Fido, that's not a doorknob!" Katie said the punch line and everyone burst out laughing. Brandy cleared her throat and liked at the ground with a smirk, and everyone followed her example. I turned around to see the boy_

_Gods don't say something stupid, it's all about a first impression, don't screw this up!_

"_Hiya" well that sounded stupid._

_"Hi, um, I'm playing Tips with my buddies and um" he rubbed his neck, oh my gods he was cute when he was nervous! This guy was a keeper so far!" I need a partner. Do you want to play?" gods, did he just ask me out on a mini-date? I can't believe,- wait, I need to say something._

_"I'd love to!" well I guess that didn't sound that bad. His face lit up in a perfect smile, I followed him over to Annabeth and Percy._

"_I saw you at the Campfire, welcome to camp Joey." I shook his hand._

(Look back to remember the dialogue.)

"No Joey! Not saving me in battle, even though thanks for that!" Is what I wanted to say, but I didn't. I settled for

"Yes Joey, thanks." I closed my eyes and nodded his head. He quickly blushed red and switched positions with Kade.

Gods! This was frustrating! I really wanted to talk about this to Joey, I guess its my protective instinct kicking in, but I guess it might be a little bit of love.

Joey was awesome! He saved my butt daily, he can talk his way out of everything like he's a charmspeaker, and he's one of the best demigods in combat I've ever seen! He kills the monsters while I just threw daggers because I can't swing a sword. I did not want to lose him like other demigods. I try to talk to him about my feelings once, cut off by a monster attack.

I try again after he saves my butt; he cuts me off and tells me to sleep.

I try again, and I chicken out.

Ugh!


	24. Iris What?

**Chapter 24**

**Joey's POV**

I leaned up against the door of the Viper and watched the cars pass by. Maybe it wasn't that good of an idea to take the Viper, it attached alot more attention, but hey, YOLO.

We were in Lawton, Oklahoma filling up the Viper. A strange silence had plagued our good mood, because we all know what was coming.

Texas.

A month earlier, Texas would mean nothing to me.

But now, it meant danger, possibly death. "_Campers, beware the land of sand,_ _Death may take you, by its hand."_ Is what the Oracle had predicted in her prophecy.

"The Chihuahua Desert covers much of West Texas." Miranda had commented when we mentioned it at camp. We all knew that Texas was the beginning of the end.

I glanced at my watch, 9:07; it was starting to get dark. The nozzle clicked, I returned it to its place and went to pay. Our money was nearly all gone, and that didn't do much to lighten the mood.

I stepped back into the driver's seat to find Kade and Miranda already dozing off, so I drove off to find a place to park.

As I pulled out onto the highway, I started to get bored, ADHD will do that. I tapped my fingers on the wheel, hummed songs, until finally I pulled out a drachma and started playing with it. I flipped it in the air, and was just about to catch it when the windshield began to shimmer.

"What the..." I trailed off. I turned on the windshield wipers but they didn't do anything. The shimmering finally settled into an image of Austin.

"Austin!?" I screamed, waking Miranda and Kade. "How, what, are you-"

"It's called an Iris message, like Skype for Demigods. All you do is drop a drachma in a rainbow and say 'Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering' then say the person." Austin explained as Kade and Miranda grumbled, then back to sleep.

"Way cool!" I commented "where are you."

"Apollo Cabin, come here guys!" Austin waved towards him. Now Austin, Joel, Eric, Crystal, all of my siblings were there. Lee even appeared at the corner of the windshield. When I looked closely, I could point out that it was Apollo Cabin, you could even hear George Strait in the background. "How's the quest?" they demanded. After I told them several times how great it was to see them, I told our entire story, end to end. It had become pretty long, and when I thought about it, we had accomplished quite a bit. Not as good as someone like Percy, but not bad. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road, so I quickly found a spot to park and continued the story.

"Wait, wait, you guys hit on a Lamia?" Eric said between laughs.

"Yeah." I answered reluctantly.

"Lights out guys, turn it off." Lee demanded, checking his watch.

"Bye Joey! Don't get killed! Look forward to seeing you here!" Were some of the goodbyes I received. After one last wave, they disappeared. I smiled, happy to see them again, and then I got an idea. I frantically looked for something that I could use to make an Iris message, and finally found a large water bottle. I filled it up and went outside, careful not to wake everyone.

I took an arrow and made a slit in the lid. I set it on the ground and crouched low, and then stepped on the water bottle. The pressure build-up and the slit widened the water and made a rainbow in the remaining sunlight.

I dropped a drachma into it and said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Linda Coleman,"

My mom eating cereal slowly appeared.

"Mom!" I cried out, enormously happy to see her face.

"Joey!" she yelled back, standing up in her robe." Are you-"

"Mom I'm a demi–"

"I know Joey! I always knew! Are you safe?!"

"I'm on a quest to save campers! I'm safe mom! I have friends with me!" I spat out desperately, the water bottle was running out.

"Joey, remember I love you! Be careful!"

"I love you to Mom! Mom, did-"the image disappeared as the water bottle ran out. I desperately reached in my pocket, but I was out of drachmas, plus that was all of our water, no more messages tonight. I slumped down on the ground, and stared at the night sky. I was way too excited to go to sleep; eventually I grabbed a fold-up chair from our trunk and plopped it on the ground. After what seemed like an hour, I heard quiet footsteps walking towards me.

"Nice try Miranda." I said without looking away from the stars.

"Awww, your no fun!" she commented playfully. "I wanted to scare you.

"At least you got out quietly." I said. "And with what I've seen in my life, it may take a little more than that to scare me."

"No doubt." She agreed, sitting down beside me.

"Miranda, if you had the choice, the choice to take it all back and not be a demigod, would you do it?" I asked, staring deep into the blackness of the sky.

"I don't know Joey." She admitted. "This life is dangerous, but knowing I would be in the dark, not knowing the truth? I feel like I'm part of something bigger as a demigod."

"Good answer."

"Joey, can I ask you something now?" she said after some hesitation.

"Anything." I said looking at her for the first time. Her hair was slightly wayward from sleeping and it looked funny. She wore a tight grey t-shirt and jeans.

"Joey," she began, looking at her toes. "Can you teach me to fight?"

"What?" I asked, caught off guard.

"I'm not any good at fighting! I feel like it's not in my blood! Sure I'm awesome at growing plants and stuff, but my fighting ability makes up for it." She admitted.

"Well, sure Miranda. I'll try; usually it just comes to me in a fight. But, I promise I'll try"

"Thanks Joey." she said, looking up at me with a smile. I got up and got Viper from the Viper and gave it to her.

"What, now?" she asked, looking at the scabbard in her hands.

"Enemies won't tell you when to fight." I commented and she relented. I clicked Aren into shield form and gave it to her. I had also taken Kade's shield for myself, and I opened the shield.

"Now, swing at me from above." She swung weakly and I deflected it off, she frowned.

"Don't worry, now try some stabs, and remember a one-handed sword is made to be quick." She stabbed, but the sword dropped too low. She sighed, not pleased.

"C'mon, give it a chance. You don't learn in a day. Try aiming a little higher and compensating for it." It went on like this for awhile until we were both tired. We set the weapons on the ground and sat beside each other on the grass, looking up at the stars.

"Good job!" I said.

"You're just saying that, I sucked."

"No, you actually did good."

"Thanks." She said shyly.

We both sat there awkwardly for another ten excruciating minutes.

"Miranda," _Don't you dare chicken out now Joey! Do it!_ "I really like you."

"Joey-"

"No, Miranda, you're awesome. You are smart, clever, you can bring a smile to anyone's face, but above all, I enjoy spending time with you. I could just talk about anything in particular, for hours with you. I know you don't feel the same way about me but I needed to get that out, it been fidgeting inside me for days." I finished, she looked at the ground. Well, now she thinks I'm a creepy loser

"Joey, I was going to say I feel the exact same way about you." She said, meeting my eyes. What the?

"Gods, are you serious?" I said, completely bewildered. She smiled broadly and nodded.

"Miranda, I want to be more than friends." Miranda put her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened.

"Will you go out with me?" I asked, my chest felt like 50 pounds had been lifted on it. It felt great just to get that out there.

"Yes Joey! Finally, yes!" she squealed. I hugged her and it didn't feel awkward at all. I pulled back and smiled at her.

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to say that." I admitted. I sat down on the lawn chair, and I smiled as she came over and sat on my lap. I held her hand and looked up at the stars with her.

"See that little upside down triangle there? That's the torso of Orion." I pointed with our hands held together. "I bet you know the story though."

"I think I need it one more time." She smiled at me.

"Well, it all started when Artemis had her eyes on a hunter..."

**Miranda's POV**

_He said it! He finally said it! Oh my gods I'm so happy! I can't believe it!_

Those were my thoughts for the next hour as me and Joey stared at the stars, it was perfect.

After it was so cold even being beside Joey didn't keep me warm, we got into the cab of the car. When I got comfortable in the passenger seat, I snuggled against his body and he put an arm around me. I truly slept for the first time in weeks.

**Phew! We've been leading up to that for a long time! I hope you enjoyed itr!**


End file.
